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900 W ooed and Married 20 

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190 Willy Reilly 20 

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829 Neal Malone 10 

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486 History of French Revolution, 2 

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508 Sartor Resartus 20 

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481 Through the Looking-Glass 20 

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Beyond Pardon 20 

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Repented at Leisure 20 

Sunshine and Roses 20 

The Earl’s Atonement 20 

A Woman’s Temptation 20 

Love Works Wonders - , , 20 

Fair but False 10 

Between Two Sins 10 

At War with Herself 15 

Hilda 10 

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Lord Lynn’s Choice 10 

The Shadow of a Sin 10 

Wedded and Parted 10 

In Cupid’s Net 10 

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A Gilded Sin 10 

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For Another’s Sin 20 

Romance of a Young Girl 20 

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A Golden Dawn 10 

Like no Other Love 10 

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Evelyn’s Folly 20 

Set in Diamonds 20 

A Fair Myster y 20 

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Romance of a Black Veil 10 

Love's Warfare 10 

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From Out the Gloom 20 

Which Loved Him Best 10 

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The Sin of a Lifetime 20 

Prince Charlie’s Daughter 10 

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Wife in Name Only 20 

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Marjorie 20 

A Wilful Maid 20 

Lady Castlemaine’s Divorce 20 

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Thrown on #he World 20 

Under a Shadow . .20 

A Struggle for a Ring 20 

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A Haunted Life 20 

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Lady Diana’s Pride 20 

Belle of Lynn 20 

Marjorie’s Fate 20 

Sweet Cymbeline 20 

Redeemed by Love 20 

The Squire’s Darling 10 

The Mystery of Colde Fell 20 

REV. JAS. FREEMAN CLARK 

Anti-Slavery Days -29 

BY S. T. COLERIDGE 

Poems Stf 


242 

183 

277 

287 

420 

423 

458 

465 

474 

476 

558 

593 

651 

609 

689 

692 

694 

695 

700 

701 

718 

720 

727 

730 

733 

738 

739 

740 

744 

752 

764 

800 

801 

803 

804 

806 

807 

808 

809 

810 

811 

812 

815 

896 

922 

923 

926 

928 

929 

930 

932 

933 

934 

969 

984 

9S5 

986 

988 

989 

1007 

1012 

1013 

BY 

167 

23 

• ) 

o 


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8 The Moonstone, Part I .10 

9 The Moonstone, Part II 10 

24 The New Magdalen 20 

87 Heart and Science 20 

418 “I Say No” 20 

437 Tales of Two Idle Apprentices 15 

683 The Ghost’s Touch 10 

686 My Lady’s Money 10 

722 The Evil Genius 20 

839 The Guilty River 10 

957 The Dead Secret 20 

996 The Queen of Hearts 20 

1003 The Haunted Hotel 10 

BY HUGH CONWAY 

429 Called Back 15 

462 Dark Days 15 

612 Carriston’s Gift 10 

617 Paul Vargas: a Mystery 10 

631 A Family Affair 20 

667 Story of a Sculptor 10 

672 Slings and Arrows 10 

715 A Cardinal Sin 20 

745 Living or Dead 20 

750 Somebody’s Story 10 

968 Bound by a Spell 20 

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6 The Last of the Mohicans 20 

53 The Spy 20 

865 The Pathfinder 20 

378 Homeward Bound 20 

441 Home as Found 20 

463 The Deerslayer 30 

467 The Prairie 20 

471 The Pioneer . . .' 25 

484 The Two Admirals 20 

488 The Water- Witch 20 

491 The Red Rover 20 

501 The Pilot 20 

506 Wing and Wing 20 

512 Wyandotte 20 

517 Heidenmauer 20 

519 The Headsman 20 

524 The Bravo 20 

527 Lionel Lincoln 20 

529 Wept of Wish-ton-Wish 20 

532 Afloat and Ashore 20 

539 Miles Wallingford 20 

543 The Monikins 20 

548 Mercedes of Castile 20 

553 The Sea Lions 20 

559 The Crater 20 

562 Oak Openings 20 

570 Satanstoe 20 

576 The Chain-Bearer 20 

587 Ways of the Hour 20 

601 Precaution 20 

603 Redskins 25 

611 Jack Tier 20 

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409 Adrift with a Vengeance 25 

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1028 A Passion Flower 20 

1041 The World Between Them 20 

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350 Grandfather Lickthingle 26 

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464 Two Years before the Mast 20 

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260 Mrs. Darling’s War Letters 20 

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815 Winifred Power „2P 

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478 Tartarin of Tarascon 20 

604 Sidonie 20 

613 Jack 20 

615 The Little Good-for-Nothing 20 

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428 Robinson Crusoe 25 

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38 A Tale of Two Cities 20 

75 Child’s History of England 20 

91 Pickwick Papers, 2 Parts, each 20 

140 The Cricket on the Hearth 10 

144 Old Curiosity Shop, 2 Parts, each. . . 15 

150 Barnaby Rudge, 2 Parts, each 10 

158 David Copperfield, 2 Parts, each 2(* 

170 Hard Times 20 

192 Great Expectations 20 

201 Martin Chuzzlewit, 2 Parts, each. . ..20 

210 American Notes 20 

219 Dombey and Son, 2 Parts, each 20 

223 Little Dorrit, 2 Parts, each. 20 

228 Our Mutual Friend, 2 Parts, each.. .20 

231 Nicholas Nickleby, 2 Parts, each 20 

234 Pictures from Italy 10 

237 The Boy at Mugby 10 

244 Bleak House, 2 Parts, each 20 

246 Sketches of the Young Couples 10 

261 Master Humphrey’s Clock 10 

267 The Haunted House, etc 10 

270 The Mudfog Papers, etc 10 

273 Sketches by Boz 20 

274 A Christmas Carol, etc 15 

282 Uncommercial Traveller 20 

2S8 Somebody’s Luggage, etc. 10 

293 The Battle of Life, etc 10 

297 Mystery of Edwin Drood 20 

298 Reprinted Pieces ' 2Q 

302 N o Thoroughfare 13 

437 Tales of Two Idle Apprentices.. . - . , 10 


4 


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404 Life of Southey 10 

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1018 Condemned Door 20 

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58 Portia 20 

76 Molly Pawn 20 

78 Phyllis 20 

86 Monica 10 

90 Mrs. Geoffrey 20 

92 Airy Fairy Lilian 20 

126 Loys, Lord Beresford 20 

1 32 Moonshine and Marguerites 10 

1 '.2 Faith and Unfaith 20 

168 Beauty’s Daughters 20 

234 Rossmoyne 20 

451 Doris 20 

477 A Week in ICillarney 10 

530 In Durance Vile 10 

018 Dick’s Sweetheart ; or, “ O Tender 

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(521 A Maiden all Forlorn 10 

624 A Passive Crime 10 

721 Lady Branksmere 20 

V35 A Mental Struggle 20 

737 The. Haunted Chamber 10 

792 Her" Week's Amusement ; 10 

802 Lady Valvvorth's Diamonds 20 

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95 Letters from High Latitudes 20 

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761 Count of Monte Cristo, Part 1 20 

761 Count of Monte Cristo, Part II 20 

775 The Three Guardsmen 20 

786 Twenty Years After 20 

884 The Son of Monte Cristo, Part I 20 

884 The Son of Monte Cristo, Part II. . . 20 

885 Monte Cristo and His Wife 20 

891 Countess of Monte Cristo, Part I. . .20 

891 Countess of Monte Cristo, Part II... 20 

998 Beau Tancrede 20 

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149 Janet’s Repentance 10 

151 Felix Holt 20 

174 Middlemarch, 2 Parts, each 20 

195 Daniel Deronda, 2 Parts, each 20 

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208 Brother Jacob, etc 10 

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EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY | 


318 Bunyan, by J. A. Froude 10 

407 Burke, by John Horley .10 

334 Burns, by Principal Shairp 10 

347 Byron, by Professor Nichol 10 

413 Chaucer, by Prof. A. W. Ward 10 

424 Cowper, by Goldwin Smith 10 

377 Defoe, by William Minto 10 

3853 Gibbon, by J. C. Morrison 10 

225 Goldsmith, by William Black. ...... 10 

369 Hume, by Professor Huxley 10 

401 Johnson, by Leslie Stephen 10 

380 Locke, by Thomas Fowler 10 

392 Milton, by Mark Pattison 10 

398 Pope, by Leslie Stephen ..10 

364 Scott, by R. H. Hutton 10 

361 Shelley, by J. Symonds 10 

404 Southey, by Professor Dowden 10 

431 Spenser, by the Dean of St. Paul’s. . 10 

344 Thackeray, by Anthony Trollope. . .10 

410 Wordsworth, by F. Myers 10 

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243 Gautran ; or, Hoube of White Shad- 
ows 20 

654 Love’s Harvest 20 

856 Golden Bells 10 

874 Nine of Hearts 20 

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473 Christmas Stories 20 


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1 9 Seekers after God 20 

50 Early Days of Christianity, 2 Parts, 

each 20 


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1004 This Man’s Wife 20 


BY OCTAVE FEUILLET 

41 A Marriage in High Life 20 

987 Romance of a Poor Young Man .... 10 


BY 

711 


760 

818 

843 

844 
850 

859 

860 
861 
8(52 

863 

864 

865 

866 
867 


FRIEDRICH, BARON DE LA 
MOTTE F0UQ.UE 

Undine 10 

BY MRS. FORRESTER 


Fair Women 

Once Again 

My Lord and My Lady. . 

Dolores 

My Hero 

Viva 

Omnia Vanitas 

Diana Carew 

From Olympus to Hades 

Rhona 

Roy and Viola 

J une 

Mignon 

A Young Man’s Fancy . . 






20 









.20 


.20 


.20 


.20 







5 


LOVELL S LIBRARY. 


BY THOMAS FOWLER 

880 Life of Locke 10 

BY FRANCESCA 

177 The Story of Ida 10 

BY R. E. FRANCILLON 

810 A Heal Queen 20 

856 Golden Bells 10 

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907 No Intentions 20 

908 Written in Fire 20 

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910 With Cupid’s Eyes 20 

931 Why Not? ,...20 

937 My Sister the Actress 20 

938 Captain Norton’s Diary 1C 

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940 The Root of all Evil 20 

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943 Petronel 20 

944 A Star and a Heart 10 

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948 Fair-Haired Alda 20 

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950 Under the Lilies and Roses. . . .... .20 

951 Heart of Jane Warner 20 

952 Love’s Conflict, Pait 1 20 

952 Love’s Conflict, Part II 20 

953 Phyllida 20 

954 Out of His Reckoning 10 

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990 Open Sesame 20 

991 Mad Dumaresq 20 

999 Fighting the Air 20 

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165 Eyre’s Acquittal 40 

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758 Cynic Fortune 10 

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751 King Arthur 20 

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779 My Friend Jim 10 

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326 The Wizard’s Son 25 

368 Old Lady Mary 10 

602 Oliver’s Bride 10 

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925 A Poor Gentleman 20 

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855 l’ascarel 20 




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659 Luck of the Darrells 20 

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396 Homer’s Iliad 30 

457 Poems 30 

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Scottish Chiefs, Part II 20 

382 Thaddeus of Warsaw 25 

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339 Poems 20 

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1010 Mrs. Gregory 20 

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28 Singleheart and Doubleface 10 

415 A Perilous Secret 20 

759 Foul Play 20 

773 Put Yourself in his Place 20 

913 Griffith Gaunt 20 

914 A Terrible Temptation 20 

915 Very Hard Cash 20 

916 It is Never Too Late to Mend 20 

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918 A Woman Hater 20 

919 Readiana 10 

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16 Freckles 20 

408 The Brierfield Tragedy 20 

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556 Dame Durden 20 

599 Like Dian’s Kiss :2G 

BY SIR H. ROBERTS 

101 Harry Holbrooke ,88 


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83T Marked “ In Haste ” 20 

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Poems 20 

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£>9 Charlotte Temple 10 

BY JOHN RUSXIN 

497 Sesame and Lilies 10 

505 Crown of Wild Olives 10 

510 Ethics of the Dust 10 

516 Queen of the Air 10 

521 Seven Lamps of Architecture 20 

537 Lectures on Architecture and Paint- 
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542 Stones of Venice, 3 Vols., each 25 

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623 Unto this Last 10 

627 Munera Pulveris 15 

637 “ A Joy Forever ” 15 

639 The Pleasures of England 10 

612 The Two Paths : 20 

644 Lectures on A.rt 15 

677 Aratra Pentelici ,15 

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668 St. Mark’s Rest 15 

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676 Eagle’s Nest 15 

679 “ Our Fathers Have Told Us” 15 

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685 Vald'Arno 15 

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399 John Holdsworth 20 

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997 T he Golden Hope 20 

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Lady of the Lake, with Notes 20 

Bride of Lammermoor 20 

Black Dwarf 10 

Castle Dangerous 15 

Legend of Montrose 15 

The Surgeon’s Daughter 10 

Heart of Mid-Lothian 80 

Waverlcy 20 

Fortunes of Nigel 20 

Peveril of the Peak 80 

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Count Robert of Paris 20 

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St. Ronati’s Well 

Anne of Geierstein 

Aunt Margaret’s Mirror 

Chronicles of the Canongatc 

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GuyMannering 

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Rob Roy 

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Old Mortality 


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677 V asconselos SO 

680 Confession 30 

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793 New Arabian Nights 20 

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166 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 20 

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360 Modem Christianity a Civilized 

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323 Life of Paul Jones ,20 

332 Every-Day Cook-Book 20 

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386 Childhood of the World 10 

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433 Wrecks in the Sea of Life 20 

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18 Set in Diamonds, by B. M. Clay 25 

19 Her Mother’s Sin, by B. M. Clay 25 

20 Other People’s Money, by Gaboriau. 25 

21 Airy Fairy Lilian, by The Duchess.. 25 

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54 Count of Monte Cristo, by Dumas... 50 

55 The Wandering Jew, by Sue 50 

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57 Middlemarch, by George Eliot 50 

58 Scottish Chiefs, by Jane Porter 50 

59 Under Two Flags, by Ouida 50 

60 David Copperfield, by Dickens 50 

61 Monsieur Lecoq, by Gaboriau 50 

62 Springhaven, by R. D. Blackmore. . .25 

63 Speeches of Henry Ward Beecher on 

the War, 50 

64 A Tramp Actor 25 

65 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by 

Jules Verne 25 

66 Tour of the World in 80 Days, by 

Jules Verne. 25 

67 The Golden Hope, by Russell 25 

68 Oliver Twist, by Dickens 25 

69 Lovell’s Whim, by Shirley Smith 25 

70 Allan Quatermain, by Haggard.. .25 


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THE 





GREAT HESPER. 


CHAPTER I. 

We landed at Southampton, September 14, 1885, and 
a ragged crew we were. 

The “ Judge,” Joe Brace, led the way — a great, gaunt 
man, with long, long legs, a stoop in his shoulders, and a 
swaying movement of his body and arms when he walked, 
as if he had a load on his back and a long way to go ; a 
man with a black fell on the back of his hands, a dark 
beard growing high upon his cheek-bones, and a great bush 
of iron-gray hair sticking out all round his head, and a 
forelock hanging down over his eye. One could see noth- 
ing of his features but a long red nose and deep-set, beady 
black eyes. His fustian jacket was worn to rags at the el- 
bows — and so was mine, as for that — split in the seams be- 
tween the shoulders with the constant strain of the labor- 
ing arms. Once upon a time his top-boots had been black, 
but now they were all the same yellow clay color with the 
trousers that were tucked into them, and just as badly in 
need of repair. 

I followed with Van Hoeck. He held my arm, not for 
support, but for guidance, because he was stone blind. 
He was thirty or thereabouts, I believe ; but he looked 
twenty years older than I, who am now about twenty-six. 
Though he was Dutch by birth, he looked like an Asiatic, 


6 


THE ORE AT IIESPER. 


being a small, dark Jew, with all the characteristics of his 
people ; while I, with my fair skin, light hair, and large 
frame, am pretty true in appearance to my northern race. 
He was better dressed than any of us, for though he had 
accompanied us, and roughed it so far as board and lodg- 
ing were concerned, he had taken only a financial part in 
the enterprise, his blindness naturally debarring him from 
a laborious part. Ilis clothes retained something of their 
original appearance. Albeit he had worn them day after 
day for eighteen months at the least ; whereas mine, what 
with exposure to the sun, the sweat of work, rough usage, 
and the strange devices employed in repairing them, were 
scarcely recogn izable as Christian clothing. His face gave 
more sign of strain and fatigue than either the Judge’s or 
mine, which might well be, seeing how great a relief to 
the mind physical labor is. There was a furrow between 
his brows, deep lines descending from the inner angle of 
the eyes, a pinched look about the nostrils and fleshless 
cheeks, that gave a fearful, strenuous eagerness to the weird 
expression of his face. And that expression was weird, 
nay, even repulsive, though his features were not ill- 
shaped, and it was due chiefly to the poculiarity of his 
eyes. Most people of dark complexion, like his, have a 
dark iris to the eye, but his was of a steely-gray, and was 
the more noticeable because there was the iris and noth- 
ing else ; there was no pupil — nothing but that gray patch 
upon the yellowish ball of the eye. He kept his eyes 
open when his mind was preoccupied. Often, when he 
was sitting near me while I worked, I have changed my 
position that I might not see those ghastly eyes wide open 
to an African sun, yet unconscious of its glare. There 
was something terrible in his blindness. 

Our rear was brought up by the “ Kid.” The name by 


THE GREAT I1ESPER. 


7 


constant use and familiarity had long ceased to be slangy 
to my ear. 

Poor little Lola! she was the raggedest and most dis- 
reputable of the lot, though it was not for that reason that 
she walked behind us ; indeed, had she suspected that to 
follow implied inf eriority, she would have marched ahead 
of her own father. That was her character. 

The child wore a ragged red flannel petticoat, a cami- 
sole that had once been white, and a colored handkerchief 
tied loosely round her neck. She had a string of colored 
beads upon her wrist, but neither hat on her head nor 
shoe on her foot. Her purple black hair grew low down 
on her temple, and broke into curls over the ears at the 
nape of her neck, and wherever it was uncontrolled; it 
was matted together in a thick, loose plait that fell down 
to her waist, and tied at the end with a strip of red flan- 
nel, torn from her petticoat. She had the prettiest little 
hands and feet, a dark olive skin, a large but beautifully- 
shaped mouth, with the finest teeth I have ever seen, 
and a pair of glorious black eyes, full of audacity, and be- 
traying only too faithfully her wild and ungovernable dis- 
position. Properly dressed (and washed), she might have 
passed for a Spanish princess ; in her present condition, 
there was no mistaking her for anything but the self-willed 
littfe'savage she was. 

The Kid had given us a deal of trouble — had we fore- 
seen how much, I do not think Van Hoeck or I would 
have put in that postscript to the agreement * which her 
father, the Judge, induced us to inscribe. 

“ The Kid has eyes in her head for to see with,” the 
Judge said, in urging her claim upon our future considera- 
tion, “ end she kin use ’em as well as us in lookin’ for 

* See copy of Agreement on Frontispiece. 


8 


THE GREAT nESPER. 


stones, end likewise, bein’ a female, she kin cook our 
meals for us ; she kin wash our shuts, end she kin sew us 
up, end keep us nice end tidy.” Whether she was capable 
of helping us in these matters I cannot say; all I know 
is, that she didn’t. “ What kin you expect?” asked her 
father, in extenuation ; “her mother was the darter of a 
du rued greaser, end it ain’t the Kid’s fault if she’s got 
greaser blood in her.” 

We came up with the Judge at the dock gates, where he 
stopped to address a policeman stationed there. 

“Kin you tell me, my friend,” he said, “ where the 
best bank in this town is located ? ” 

I think the policeman’s first impression, as he regarded 
us, was that we had felonious purpose in asking this ques- 
tion, for he did not reply immediately, and with reluctance 
directed us to the High Street, and told us to inquire there 
of someone else. 


CHAPTER II. 

We marched on to the High Street, our appearance at- 
tracting a good deal of attention, and creating some 
amusement and speculation doubtless. Persons on the 
opposite side of the road stopped to look across at us, 
others regarded us askant in passing and turned round to 
watch our progress, a few children followed us, thinking 
may be that we were about to give some kind of street 
entertainment. 

W e found a bank and streamed in, a small crowd col- 
lecting round the door, as it swung to behind the Kid. 
The clerks suspended their operations and looked at us in 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


9 


open-mouthed astonishment as we ranged ourselves along 
the counter. 

“Is the manager of this concern in ? ” asked the Judge 
— “ Hands off,” he added, in a roar, as the Kid, slipping 
her lithe hand under the brasswork protecting the counter, 
began to finger the scales. 

The Kid, unmoved, satisfied her curiosity, then, with- 
drawing her hand, rested her elbow on the counter, and 
dropping her chin in the palm, gazed at the clerks with 
stolid indifference. 

“ The manager is. in, what do you want ? ” asked the 
clerk. 

“ Let up, Israel,” said the J udge, falling back a step, and 
waving his hand significantly toward Van Iloeck. 

“We wish to negotiate a loan on the security of a large 
diamond that we have brought home from the Cape,” said 
Van Hoeck. 

“ Eight hundred and twenty carats, fust water,” added 
the Judge; “the grandest stone in this almighty uni- 
verse ! ” 

There was a whispered consultation among the clerks, 
and one went into a private room at the back of the bank, 
from which he presently returned with the manager. 

“ I am the manager ; what do you want ? ” 

Van Hoeck repeated his statement. 

“ And what security can you give me that the diamond 
is genuine,” asked the manager, with a pleasant smile, “ or 
that it is legitimately yours to dispose of?” 

“You will allow, sir, if anyone hed lost a stone of this 
kind he would have made it unsafe for us to walk about 
with it in the daylight,” replied the Judge, “and as for 
its bein’ genuine, you kin hev the security of your own 
eyesight.” 


10 


THE GREAT HESTER. 


“ I do not profess to be a judge of diamonds, and I can 
have nothing to do with it,” said the manager definitively. 

We streamed out of that bank as we had streamed into 
it, and tried another, but with no better result, the man- 
ager telling us that transactions of such a kind were alto- 
gether beyond the range of his business ; and we found 
a third, but the manager was absent, and by this time, 
being convinced that- the plan we had proposed was im- 
practicable, we put our heads together in council at the 
corner of the street to determine what course we should 
take. 

We were disgusted with Southampton, and, had we 
possessed the means, should have gone on at once to Lon- 
don, where we might have found some former acquaint- 
ance to help us out of our present difficulty. But we had 
nothing — nothing in the world but the things we stood 
upright in and the great diamond. For our smaller finds 
and our implements we had sold at Natal to make up 
enough to pay our steerage home, and our spare clothes, 
our knives, every available thing we had bartered away 
on our passage for food to supplement the miserably in- 
sufficient steerage fare. 

“We kin not pawn the Kid,” said the Judge, “end 
that’s about the only perkisit as we could well do without.” 

It was now well upon three o’clock, and we felt the 
need of food, having eaten nothing since six, when our 
last rations were served out to us on the “ Southern Gross.” 
Our position was a desperate one. With millions in our 
possession, we might starve in the street, or have to take 
refuge in the work-house. It was odd, indeed, and very 
unpleasant also. At length, being unable to see any way 
out of our difficulty, we made our way to a police-station 
and laid our case before the inspector. 


THE GREAT KEEPER. 


11 


“ Well, my good fellows,” said he, having heard us out, 
“ I don’t see how I’m to help you. The mayor is the 
proper person to go to, but he’s away yachting. The only 
person I can think of,” he added, after a moment’s reflec- 
tion, “ who might serve you is Sir Edmund Lascelles. 
He’s got a kind of museum, and buys up curiosities, I 
know ; and a kind old gentleman he is, too. How, if lie’s 
at home ” 

We asked him hurriedly where Sir Edmund lived, and 
he replied that it was out Lyinington way — Monken 
Abbey — eight or nine miles, and anyone would tell us the 
way. 

Well, there was nothing better to be done; so we got 
the inspector to give us a more definite direction, and then 
started off in search of the abbey. The Judge swinging 
along ahead at a good four miles an hour, the Kid had to 
trot to keep up with us ; but I gave her my hand, and she 
did not complain — it was not in her nature to show suffer- 
ing in the ordinary way. 

It must have been about six o’clock when we found the 
park entrance to Monken Abbey, and there we were 
stopped by the lodge-keeper, who refused to let us pass 
without permission from Sir Edmund ; but when he heard 
that w r e had been sent by the inspector of police at South- 
ampton, he sent his wife up to the house, to know if the 
baronet would see us. 

We sat on a bank near the lodge gate close upon an 
hour before we learned our fate ; for Sir Edmund was at 
dinner when the message reached the house, and the ser- 
vants did not choose to deliver it until he had dined. A 
servant led us through the park to the abbey, and took us 
into a beautiful hall, wainscoted with dark oak, and hung 
with antlers, old armor, and other suitable decorations ; 


12 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


and here vve waited until Sir Edmund Lascelles came to 
us. Our spirits rose at the first glimpse of the handsome, 
portly old gentleman. There was benevolence in the little 
curls of his soft white hair, and the promise of kind treat- 
ment in the genial smile with which he greeted us. 

“ Well,” said he, cheerfully, “ you have something to 
sell me, have you ? ” 

“ Yes,” I replied, “ if you can buy it ; it is a diamond.” 

“ A diamond ! Ah, that’s a costly kind of curiosity, 
but I like them for all that ; have you got it with you ? ” 

“ Yes,” said I ; and, turning over my hand, I opened it, 
showing the leather case strapped to my wrist, which con- 
tained the Great Hesper, as we called our diamond. The 
baronet was thunderstruck by the prodigious size of the 
stone, for he could see that the leather fitted it closely. 

“ You tell me that this is a diamond?” he exclaimed, 
lifting the case as it lay on my hand. 

<c We had it tested at Natal,” said Yan IToeck ; “it is 
a white diamond, and if not of the first water, is certainly 
of the second ; it weighs 820 carats.” 

“ Is it possible ? Come with me. Eight hundred and 
twenty carats!” said Sir Edmund, in great excitement. 
“ Bring a light into the library at once,” he called to ono 
of the servants. 

We went into the library, where I cut the stitches of the 
case, took out the Great Hesper and put it into Sir Ed- 
mund’s hand, by which time a reading-lamp had been 
brought in. 

“ It is true ! it is true ! ” said he, examining it under a 
powerful light. “ A wonderful stone — a perfect form — a 
prodigy ! Come here, Edith ; look at this ! ” 

A young lady who had entered the room drew near. It 
was only by looking at the facet we had had cut and pol- 


TEE GREAT EESPER. 


13 


ished that she could distinguish that this was a diamond, 
for it was dull and gray, and looked like a lump of glass 
that had passed through the fire. 

“ It is an extraordinary size, is it not, papa % ” she 
asked. 

“ Extraordinary, indeed ! The Koh-i-noor is not a 
fourth of the size ! Bee what the book says about that ; 
get down Haydn, my dear.” 

Miss Lascelles fetched the hook, while her father still 
examined the stone, as an artist might a masterpiece, and 
presently read aloud — 

“ Its original weight was nearly 800 carats, but it was 
reduced by the unskilfulness of the artist — Borghese, a 
Venetian — to 279 carats ; its shape and size resembled the 
pointed half rose cut of a small hen’s egg ; the value is 
scarcely computable, though two millions sterling have 
been mentioned as a justifiable price, if calculated by the 
scale employed by the trade. This diamond was recut in 
1852, and now weighs 102£ carats.” 

“ Good, good ! ” cried the baronet. “ With skilful cut- 
ting, a diamond of such a form as this need not lose 100 
carats. Heavens ! ” he exclaimed, turning to us, “ you have 
the greatest treasure in the world.” 

“ Give me your hand, Thorne; hold me,” said Van 
Hoeck in a low voice, and speaking thickly. 

I turned quickly, and caught him as he reeled forward ; 
for he had fainted, either from the want of food, from in- 
tense excitement, or both. 


14 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


CHAPTER III. 

When Yan Hoeck recovered, and the baronet heard of 
our long fast, he took us at once into the dining-room, and 
had us served with the best he could give. It was a repast 
to recompense us for our long privations, and for a time 
we famished wretches forgot our treasure in the keen, ani- 
mal pleasure of satisfying the craving of hunger. Sir Ed- 
mund sat at the table with us, directing the servants, who 
) irely had never before waited upon such strange com- 
pany. One could see that it was a real delight to this 
large-hearted man to see us eat and drink. Miss Lascelles 
herself waited upon Yan Iloeck, attending to his wants 
with feminine tact and delicacy ; his affliction appealed to 
her womanly sympathy. 

She was a tall and graceful girl, with her father’s fair 
complexion, bright, mirthful eyes, that added to the happy 
expression of her face, and beautiful soft brown hair, that 
took golden lights and chestnut shadows in its undulation. 
She looked you in the face with a fearlessness only possible 
to those who are perfectly healthy and perfectly honest. 
To the charm of physical beauty was added a faultless 
manner — the complete self-command and unfailing grace 
inseparable from a lady of birth and education. She was 
as courteous to us, who must have seemed the veriest out- 
casts of society, as though we were her equal. A true lady 
can never be ungracious. 

Her presence had an indescribable effect upon my senses 
— the effect of line music after discord. I was conscious 
of a return from savagery to civilization. But it was not 
until my gross appetite was satisfied that I became sus- 
ceptible to the new delight. 


TEE GREAT HESPER. 


B 

The baronet spoke not one word about the diamond dur 
ing dinner, but when it was all over he said : 

“ Well, now we will go back to the library : and you 
shall come with us, Edith, if our cigars will not be dis, 
agreeable to you, for we have a marvellous matter to talk 
about.” 

In the library Miss Lascelles seated herself beside her 
father, while we three men sat facing them on the other 
side of a small round table, on which I placed the dia- 
mond. At a little distance from us there was a lion skin 
on the door, and on this the Kid threw herself, and as she 
lay there looking toward us, with her chin resting in the 
palms of her hands and her elbows planted in the fur, we 
saw scarcely anything of her but her great lustrous eyes, 
because of the shadow thrown by the lamp-shade. 

“Now let us understand the position of things to. begin 
with,” said Sir Edmund, taking a cigar, after handing the 
box to us. 

“ This will explain a good deal,” said I, putting in his 
hand the copy of our agreement. 

He held it that his daughter might read it with him, 
and having come to the end said : 

“ Might 1 ask which is the Judge ? ” 

“ That’s me,” said Brace, with some pride ; “ appinted 
by the Long Pike Vigilance Committee in ’56.” 

“ You are an American ? ” 

« Located as such for twenty years ; born in Cornwall.” 

“ And Jan Van Hoeck ? ” 

“ That’s Israel,” responded the Judge, indicating Van 
Iloeck ; “ and darkness fell upon ’em,” he added, ex- 
plan atively. 

During a short space of his eventful career Brace had 
earned a precarious existence as a travelling preacher. 


16 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


“ Then you are Bernard Thorne,” the baronet said to 
me, “ and Lola is ” 

“ The Kid,’’ said Brace ; “ her mother was a greaser — a 
Mexican,” he explained to Miss Lascelles. The dinner 
had warmed his spirits and loosened his tongue, and he 
continued, “ We were drawed together at Cape Town by 
an advertisement in the paper. Our afflicted brother 
wanted to stake his little pile upon a mining venture. lie 
lied studied the thing scientific’lly ; he had laid out a 
kinder chart in his head, pricked down where the great 
linds had been made, sorter reasoned out the cause thereof, 
end sot his mind firm as a big find was to be made in a 
certain spot known only unto himself. We conversed, and 
lie perceived without much difficulty, as he hed found the 
right sorter partner in me, end he kinder left it with me to 
find a third party to jine in the venture. I spotted out 
Gentleman Thorne here among a dozen. I liked the shape 
of his chest and shoulders ; I liked the look of his face ; I 
see that though he was outer luck, he was a gentleman, 
every inch of him ; and I tell you, miss,” he said, address- 
ing Miss Lascelles, “ that though I ain’t no gentleman 
myself, I back blood and breedin’ ag’in all creation. A 
man like Gentleman Thorne, who has been kep’ clean in 
his infancy, fed wholesome, trained up in a public school, 
and been learnt to respect hisself and God Almighty, has 
better temper, more endurance, more pluck and fightin’ 
power to overcome and win, than a dozen of the muckers 
that bounce about bein’ workin’men.” He paused a mo- 
ment to let his words make due impression, and then con- 
tinued, “Gentleman Thorne had no experience, but he 
had a hundred pound to put inter the concern, and that 
fetched Israel j ust as much as his looks fetched me. Israel 
had three hunderd. I hed nothing in the shape of dollars, 


THE GREAT I1ESPER. 


17 


but I threw in the Kid, which, being a female, was cal- 
culated to be useful unter us in the nat’ral order of things. 
What we lied we lumpt in, and by written agreement 
drawed up mutual, w r e undertook to play it out to the bot- 
tom dollar and the pint of starvation. We worked, sir, 
through thick and thin, through the measliest streak of 
luck mortal man ever struck. 

“ Israel was the first to funk it. ‘My ealc’lations are 
wrong ; it’s a hopeless venture, let us chuck it,’ he says ; to 
which Gentleman Thorne replies — ‘ Ko,’ he says, £ we’ll 
stick to our colors and tight it out,’ says he ; end he did his 
level best to cheer us on. You should have heered him 
there a-wliistlin’ like a black-bud, singin’ songs, drawin’ 
us out of ourselves, and maldn’ a pleasant joke out of our 
bad luck. Ast the Kid down there who was her best 
friend in that trouble. She’ll tell you it was Gentleman 
Thorne, not her father. She had a bit of a fever — it was 
him made up a bed for her, built a screen to keep the sun 
off, walked fifteen mile in the night to get things from the 
store, set up night after night to give her water, end used 
for to sing out about the sleeping beauty and Cinerella, 
while lie was peggin’ away at the durned stones. I will 
allow, Miss, I were ashamed to let him see I was losin’ 
heart, and whenj felt like blasphemin’ at things in gen’al, 
I used to take a short walk and let off all my swearin’ 
where he couldn’t hear me. Well, it did look as ef we 
had hooked on to the everlastin’ fish-kittle. Then Israel 
funked it a second time. ‘ We liev still a few pounds left,’ 
he says to Gentleman Thorne, i let’s throw up the cards,’ 
which they might liev done without going from our writ- 
ten word, they two formin’ a majority. But Gentleman 
Thorne wouldn’t agree to it. It wouldn’t be fair to the 
Judge, he said, and then he promised that if we failed in 
2 


18 


THE ORE AT HESPER. 


the end he’d stick by Israel, and keep him like his own 
flesh and blood until he found the means of keeping his- 
self, w ich was more than I’d hev promised him, I will 
allow. Well, we played on till the last cent was spent in 
stores, and the stores had got down to half a tin of beef, 
and a screw of shag, and then I lighted on a two-carat 
stone. The very next day Gentleman Thorne found the 
Great Hesper. We couldn’t allow it was real, yet we 
sorter thought it was. Anyhow, we didn’t sleep till we 
got to Natal and had it tested. We sold the littler stone, 
and scraped enough together to pay our passage to South- 
ampton by the next boat. In committee we agreed to go 
to a bank and raise money on the diamond as soon’s we 
landed, but no one wouldn’t take us on, end if the police 
hadn’t put us on this track I’m durned if I know what 
partic’ler ’ole we should hev been stickin’ in at the pres- 
ent moment.” 

During this recital, which I have abbreviated considera- 
bly, Van Hoeck, who despised the Judge and abominated 
all he said, sat with his eyes closely shut, liis nostrils 
pinched, and his black brows creased together, so that they 
almost met. Miss Lascelles listened with intense interest, 
her pretty lips just parted, and I thought she looked more 
kindly upon me for the glowing eulogium — of which I 
have omitted a great part — paid to me by Brace. 

The Kid changed her position, seeming to catch some 
of her father’s enthusiasm, and, sitting upon her heels with 
her hands clasped before her, turned her flashing eyes 
sometimes upon me, but more often upon Miss Lascelles, 
as if to catch the effect of this narrative. 

“ One thing is obvious,” said Sir Edmund cheerfully ; 
“ you won’t want to leave me to-night.” 

“ Neery one on us, you bet ! ” replied the Judge, while 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


19 


Van Hoeek and I expressed the same sentiments in other 
words. 

The baronet spoke in a low tone to his daughter, who 
rose and left the room. 

<c The next thing to consider is,” ho then said, “ how can 
I be of service to you in this affair. To purchase your 
treasure is of course altogether out of the question. But 
I should like to buy a small — a very, very small — share in 
it, paying down a certain sum for your present conven- 
ience, and taking it back when the diamond is ultimately 
disposed of, with a reasonable percentage upon the outlay. 
I make this suggestion as a matter of business, that you 
may feel yourselves free from any restraint in accepting 
my offer.” 

It took us but a few moments to agree to this proposal. 

“ In that case,” he proceeded, “ I should wdsli to have 
a voice in the management of this business, and the first 
suggestion I should make is, that the finest artist in work 
of this kind be engaged to cut the diamond under this 
roof, and that during the operation you should take up 
your residence here. This precaution is necessary for the 
safe keeping of the treasure, and for our own common se- 
curity. 

This arrangement was too obviously advantageous to us 
to require argument ; we consulted together, and quickly 
agreed to accept the condition. , 

Sir Edmund read the agreement through again, and 
then said : 

“We must consult a lawyer with regard to a legal form 
of agreement. Here there is a kind of tontine arrange- 
ment by which one would receive an enormous advantage 
by the death of his partners. It is an uncomfortable 
clause, and I do not see the necessity for its existence, now 


20 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


that the circumstances which called for its being made are 
changed. A lawyer may provide for our security without 
exposing us to ugly possibilities. That, however, can all 
be settled later on. There is no hurry. It will be time 
enough to make the legal arrangement when we have as- 
certained the value of the property to be arranged, and 
that we cannot know before the stone is cut. We will 
question the best firms in London with regard to a lapi- 
dary, and take our time. Meanwhile, I will supply you 
with what money you want upon your I O U, and the dia- 
mond shall remain in your keeping. Talk it over among 
yourselves at your leisure, and any modification you may 
think advisable I have no doubt I shall be able to accept.” 

Miss Lascelles returned to the room, and spoke to her 
father. Then she went to Lola, who had curled herself 
up on the skin, and knelt down beside her. The girl was 
not asleep ; she started up into a sitting attitude as Miss 
Lascelles approached, and flung off the hand that was laid 
tenderly on her arm. 

“ You don’t dislike me, Lola? ” the young lady asked, 
smiling. 

“ Yes, I do,’’ the girl replied, savagely. 

“ But I want to be your friend.” 

“We shan’t never be friends.” 

I lost Miss Laseelles’s response, for a servant entered the 
room, and Sir Edmund addressed us : 

“Your rooms are ready,” he said ; “ Johnson will show 
you to them if you feel you would like to turn in.” 

The prospect of sleeping once more in a good bed 
brought us to our feet at once. 

Miss Lascelles, undaunted by the first rebuff, had got 
Lola’s hand in hers, and was talking in a low, endearing 
tone to her. The Kid snatched her hand away, started to 


TEE GREAT EE8PER . 


21 


her feet, and came to my side, seeing we were about to 
go. 

“ A little cuss,” said the Judge ; “ you must excuse her, 
Miss. Her mother was a greaser, and she’s never had any 
kindness shown her, except by Gentleman Thorne. A lick 
with the strap is what she understands best. Ho, Miss,” 
he added, when Miss Lascelles offered to take Lola to her 
room ; “ leave her to me. There ain’t nothing but disap- 
pointment and vexation of spirit to be got outer the un- 
grateful little varmint.” 

The room given to the Kid was the prettiest imaginable, 
witli hangings of white lace over blue silk, and everywhere 
the eye was pleased with some pretty evidence of care and 
taste. The bed was suggestive of coziness and fresh vir- 
gin purity at the same time. I might have taxed my in- 
genuity in vain to have invented such a room in the stories 
I have told to Lola. We left the Kid there, leaning 
against the wall, her unfathomable eyes looking around 
her in sullen curiosity. 

In the morning the room was found empty, the bed un- 
touched, the floor covered with shreds of the clothing Miss 
Lascelles had laid out for Lola’s use, and which, undoubt- 
edly, the little savage had torn up. 

Poor little Lola! She and I had always been the best 
of friends, except when a question of cooking or washing 
occurred to trouble us. She would yield to my persuasion 
when nothing else would bend her stubborn spirits. She 
feared my silent reproach more than the scathing sarcasm 
Van Hoeck treated her with, or the heavy hand of her 
father. She respected no one but me, probably because 
I alone respected her feelings. 

Had I foreseen that night the course she was about to 
take, I might, with a little patient persuasion, have brought 


22 


THE GREAT HESTER. 


her to reason. My spirit is weighed down with regret 
when I think how perhaps a dozen words from me at that 
time would have turned aside the fearful consequences of 
that act — an act so slight, yet followed by terror upon 
terror, by crime upon crime. 


CHAPTEE IY. 

I must summarize as briefly as possible the events that 
took place the week following Lola’s flight, not because I 
find them lacking in interest — for indeed these were the 
happiest days I had ever spent — but because the lengthy 
description would unduly retard the progress of the his- 
tory I have set myself to narrate. 

On the morning of the 15th, search was made for Lola. 
She was not in the house. A little after midday, one of 
the keepers, sent out to explore the abbey woods and 
park, reported that he had seen the fugitive in the fir 
plantation, about half a mile from the abbey. At sight 
of him she had “ scuttled ” away like a young deer, but he, 
obedient to orders, had not pursued her. 

“ It’s the smell of the pines as drawed her there,” said 
the Judge; “she was born amongst ’em, she has lived 
amongst ’em, and she loves ’em more than laces and satins, 
and picters, and sicli like ; and it’s more nat’ral for the 
little cuss to sleep on the brown needles than in feathers. 
There’s no tamin’ her. It’s instinc’, end, like foul weeds 
in a fair pasture, durn her, there’s no gettin’ it out of her. 
Leave her alone, sir, and she’ll come in when she’s hun- 
gry, and then I will larn her the iniquity of ongrati- 
tude ! ” 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


23 


In the afternoon we went in a Break to Southampton, 
driving slowly through the woods, with the possibility of 
being seen by Lola, who would certainly then have fol- 
lowed us, but we saw nothing of her. At Southampton 
we bought decent clothes, and spent some time in the hair- 
dresser’s. I had my beard shaved off ; and we returned to 
the abbey, very much altered for the better in appearance. 

Miss Lascelles was much distressed about Lola, w T ho 
was still absent. Brace’s explanation of her leaving the 
abbey seemed a reasonable one, but her antipathy to 
Miss Lascelles, which led her to destroy the things she 
had given her, was to me a mystery, to Miss Lascelles also, 
I believe, and a very painful one. She seemed to feel 
herself in some inscrutable way responsible for the girl’s 
action. 

Sir Edmund returned in the evening from London. 

“ Now, indeed, you look yourself — a gentleman,” he 
said, shaking my hand cordially. He had made inquiries 
respecting a lapidary, and learned that the most expert 
known to the trade was a man named Carvalho, then oc- 
cupied at Madrid. With our sanction he wrote at once, 
offering this man his own terms, to come to the abbey, 
and cut the Great Ilesper. 

At night, the door by which Lola was supposed to have 
escaped from the abbey was left open, and a night-light 
was placed in her bedroom. 

The next morning the dairy-maid said that someone 
had been at her milk-pans in the night ; there was no other 
evidence of Lola having entered the house. After break- 
fast, I determined to go through the woods myself in 
search of her. Miss Lascelles wished to accompany me. 
I ought to have pointed out to her that her company les- 
sened the chances of Lola suffering me to approach her, but 


24 


THE GREAT HESTER. 


I could not deprive myself the pleasure of having such a 
sweet companion. We saw Lola at the edge of a clearing 
on the hill-side. She watched us as we drew near. I 
called to her, but she shook her head, and, turning her 
back upon us, quickly disappeared among the pines. The 
forlorn condition of the girl ; her gesture, which seemed 
full of sadness ; the silent fall of leaves ; the tristness of 
the autumn woods, overcame Miss Lascelles ; and as she 
walked silently beside me, with her head bent, I saw that 
she was crying. This episode made a deep impression 
upon me ; yet while my heart ached with sympathy for 
the poor little savage wandering alone in those silent, 
still woods, an indescribable happiness stole over my 
senses. It was the awakening of love. 

Sir Edmund had a basket of food placed in the dairy, 
and the doors again left open. 

On the 17th we learned that some bread and fruit had 
been taken from the dairy in the night. Sir Edmund and 
I walked through the woods : we saw nothing of Lola. Our 
conversation turned upon his daughter, and he told me how 
she had consoled him for the loss of his wife. He spoke 
with natural pride of her sweet and loyal disposition. 
Later on, falling upon the subject of the great diamond, 
he asked me how I came to be a miner. I told him of my 
loss by the failure of the Imperial, of the impossibility of 
my getting my living as a clerk, etc. Incidentally I re- 
ferred to my mother’s family, and the name leading him 
to make further inquiries, he discovered the curious fact 
that my mother must have been his wife’s cousin. How 
often do we find wide circles of friends linked together in 
this way ! I thought that Miss Lascelles was greatly pleased 
with the discovery of the distant relationship existing be- 
tween us ; we seemed less remote from each other. 


TEE GREAT EESPER. 


25 


During our absence Miss Lascelles had devoted herself 
entirely to Yan Hoeek ; her sympathy had a remarkable 
effect upon this strange man. When I took him up to his 
room to dress for dinner, he asked me to open the win- 
dows, and place him where he might feel the air. He sat 
before the open window ; the setting sun was reflected upon 
his sightless eyes. I believe he became unconscious of my 
presence, and I stood there watching the play of his feat- 
ures. Ilis nostrils dilated, his brows creased together, his 
lips parted, showing his teeth closely set, the whole ex- 
pression of his face indicating extreme dread ; then the 
muscles relaxed, for a moment his cadaverous cheeks were 
tinged with color, the eyes closed, and the lips trembled 
as if in ecstasy. Again his lids rose, and the look of dread 
returned to his face. He shrunk back in his chair, and 
blinked his eyes as though struggling to give them light ; 
then suddenly he flung out his arms wildly, and with a 
smothered cry of impotent rage buried his face in his 
hands, his long, thin fingers pressing the throbbing veins 
which stood out knotted and hard upon his temples. 

“ What is the matter, old man ? ” 1 asked, putting my 
hand on his shoulder. 

He started, and answered impatiently : 

“Nothing, nothing — a dream!” And then he asked 
savagely — “ Who watches you in the night ? ” 

“ This is not the night,” I replied, fancying he was yet 
but half awake. 

“ Isn’t it \ ” he asked, turning his eyes from one side to 
the other; then stretching out his hands, as if to heaven, 
he cried — “ Then what is the night ? ” 

Poor wretch, all was indeed night to him. 1 tried to 
engage him in conversation, but he waved his hand impa- 
tiently, and, getting up, felt his way to the wash-stand. 


26 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


“Go down,” he said ; “ Miss Lascelles is more pleasing 
to the eye than I am ; she must be beautiful, for her voice 
is music, her touch is like the petal of a rose. Where do 
you keep the diamond — is it safe ? ” 

1 told him that I now kept it in a belt buckled to my 
waist. 

“ Strap it to your wrist again : it is safer,” he said ; and 
then, bending his head aside, he listened attentively for a 
moment and continued, in a lower voice : “ They are talk- 
ing together down there. Creep down and listen. I tell 
you we are not safe here — I see that through my blindness. 
I have faculties in place of that I have lost. Do you hear 
them ? Come closer, Thorne ; there is a conspiracy in this 
house — a plot to rob us of our treasure, and turn us beg- 
gars again upon the street. If I could trust you, I’d tell 
you more. But everyone is a thief who has the power to 
steal.” 

It was not the first time I had heard him talk in this 
vein. At Natal, on the ship, he had been in constant 
dread of being robbed. I was glad to get away from him. 
As I passed the head of the stairs in going to my room, I 
distinguished the sound — too distant before to tell upon my 
dull ear — of Sir Edmund’s voice and the Judge’s ; they 
were in the library below. After dressing, I joined them, 
and found Sir Edmund greatly interested in Brace’s de- 
scription of gold-mining in California — a subject upon 
wdiich he could be eloquent by the hour together. 

On the 18th, Sir Edmund, Miss Lascelles and I rode 
over to Southampton. Miss Lascelles was in her gayest, 
happiest mood, and in her riding-habit looked more 
charming than ever. 

In returning we met a friend of Sir Edmund’s ; he ac- 
cepted the invitation to take lunch at the abbey, and 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


27 


rode beside the baronet, ahead of us. We two took the 
hill so slowly that, coming to the cross-roads, we could 
not see Sir Edmund and his friend. There were two 
ways to the abbey. After a little deliberation, Miss 
Lascelles laughingly consented to take the longer one. 

The morning was superb ; the woods were glorious. 
The rich, warm tints of the reddening foliage were re- 
flected on my beautiful companion’s cheek ; her eyes 
seemed to catch the glitter of the dew that still hung on 
the gossamers. I forget what we talked about, but she 
was full of mirth, and now and then the still woods rang 
with the musical cadence of her laugh. But suddenly 
the smile died from her face, and she said : 

“ We forget poor little Lola.” 

And then, as if the words had conjured up her pres- 
ence, the girl appeared, swiftly speeding between the red 
boles of the fir-trees. We stopped, and I called : 

“ Lola, dear, come and speak to me.” 

She stood still, and looked as if irresolute whether or 
not to respond to my appeal. 

“ I will stay here. Go to her,” said Miss Lascelles softly. 

But, as if she had divined my intention, Lola shook 
her head mournfully, as she had done before, and going 
her way was presently hid by the tall brake. As we 
crossed the opening where we had previously seen her, 
I looked back, and perceived her standing in the same 
place gazing after us. It was easy to conceive her mis- 
ery, and the bitter feelings of her heart. She was unal- 
tered, but I was no longer the rough toiler grateful for a 
tin of water fetched from the stream. All that was past. 
I was no longer her companion. I should never, never 
more share her hard fare, and look to her to lessen the 
hardships of existence. 


28 


TIIE GREAT 11ESPER.- 


On the 19th, we went again into the woods, but on foot, 
Miss Lascelles and I, straying thither without purpose 
from the garden, where we met. We came to a stream 
bridged by a single plank supported in the middle. 
There had been a hand-rail, but it had fallen away in de- 
cay. I gave her ray hand, the fear of falling made her 
clasp my fingers tightly. She seemed to enjoy the little 
danger ; it animated her face and eyes with the pretti- 
est, most bewitching expression imaginable. Her hand 
seemed to communicate the quickened pulsation of her 
heart. But it was not fear — it was intoxication that agi- 
tated. me ; and when she put her foot in safety on the 
bank, and looked up into my face with bright laughter, I 
lost my head completely, I kept her hand in mine, and 
when she tried to withdraw it, I forced it to my lips, and 
pressed a kiss upon it. The color left her cheek, and in 
a tone of reproach she exclaimed : “ Oh, Mr. Thorne ! 55 
and 1 was ashamed. We walked home, and were very 
silent on the way. I sought Sir Edmund at once, and, 
finding him alone, told him that 1 wished to make his 
daughter my wife. He was thunderstruck by this sud- 
den and unexpected announcement. 

“ I love your daughter, 55 1 said, “ and 1 cannot stay in 
this house keeping my passion a secret. 55 

“ Well, 55 said he, with rather rueful pleasantry, “ you 
have lost no time, Mr. Thorne, but it would have been 
a poor compliment to my daughter had you failed to per- 
ceive her charms. 55 

“ I should be dull indeed had she failed to impress 
me, 55 I replied. 

We talked for some time, and finally he said, with emo- 
tion : 

“ I must give up my dear child, sooner or later. Her 


THE GREAT BE8PER. 


29 


happiness is dearer to me than anything ; and I can wish 
her no greater blessing than to find a good and worthy 
husband.” 

At that moment Edith opened the door, but, seeing us, 
she stopped in the entrance. 

“Come here, Edith,” said Sir Edmund; and, taking 
her hand, he continued, “ Mr. Thorne wishes you to be 
his wife ; is that your wish also ? ” 

She buried her burning face in her father’s shoulder ; 
she could neither say yes nor no. 

“ It is a question that should not be decided hastily,” 
the baronet continued ; “ take time, my dear. Mean- 
while, I see no reason for your leaving the house,” he 
added, addressing me. 

“ Unless — ” I faltered. 

“ Unless Edith wishes it,” the baronet said, helping me 
out. “ True. Shall you feel more at ease, dear, if Mr. 
Thorne goes away — for a certain time, say ? Shall he go \ ” 

Still screening her face, Edith shook her head, and then 
I knew that I had won a treasure greater than the Hesper 
diamond. 

In the afternoon of the 20th, Sir Edmund said : 

“ I have been looking at your engagement, Bernard, 
from a practical point of view, and a fact occurs to me 
that, at such a time as this, would probably escape you. 
That agreement of yours must be altered. You will see 
that, for Edith’s sake, what I call the tontine clause — a 
clause conferring upon the survivor a deceased partner’s 
share in the Great TIesper — should be abrogated. It en- 
tails a risk which she must not be exposed to — you under- 
stand me ? ” 

I understood what he said perfectly, and agreed with 
him that the clause must be altered. 


30 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


“Consult with your partners,” he said, “as to what 
change is advisable. I expect my lawyer here on the 
24th, and he can then draw up a legal agreement in ac- 
cordance with our general wish.” 

I took the Judge into Yan Hoeck’s room that night, 
and there told him of my engagement to Miss Lascelles. 
Yan Iloeck was visibly alarmed when he heard this; and 
when I went on to say that Sir Edmund wished the clause 
altered by his lawyer on the 24th, he said quickly, in a 
low voice : 

“ The crafty old fox ! What does he mean by that ? ” 

“ Ilis meaning is obvious enough,” I replied ; “ if I 
marry Miss Lascelles, and die, she will be dispossessed of 
my share in the diamond. I can leave her only a legacy 
of debt.” 

“ Yes, end tliet ain’t all on it,” said the Judge, dragging 
his wiry chin-tuft through his hand and bending his brow. 
“ Thet ain’t all by a lump. We’re playing with a marked 
card in the pack — a card as might tempt e’er a one on us 
to foul play.” 

“ What on earth do you mean ? Speak plainly if you 
can,” said Yan Hoeck, in angry impatience. 

“ Well, I mean this ’ere,” answered the Judge, with 
slow impressiveness, “ that if one of my pardners wasn’t 
a gentleman, and t’other wasn’t helpless blind, I’m durned 
if I’d go to bed without a six-shooter under my pi Her, 
and my finger on the trigger. I don’t allude to one any 
more’n another, but we’ll just take Israel’s word for gos- 
pel, that everyone is a thief if you give him a chance of 
thievin’ ; end, at that rate, I’m just as likely as not to 
murder my two pardners, and git the whole of thet dia- 
mond to myself. Consequently, you will allow' thet the 
squire has a double reason for wantin’ thet agreement 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


31 


altered : fur it ain’t only the money lie’s got to secure on 
to his daughter, but her husbin’s life likewise. Time 
enough for the young lady to be a widder in the nat’ral 
order of things in gen’al.” 


CHAPTER V. 

When I met Sir Edmund in the morning, I told him that 
my partners had agreed with me to alter the clause in the 
agreement, though we had not yet decided in what manner. 

“ I am glad to hear it,” he said ; “ anything will be 
better than that agreement as it stands.” 

Edith came down late to breakfast. She looked pale 
and said she had overslept herself. 

“ For the first time in your life, I believe,” said Sir 
Edmund. “ You did not fall asleep quite so readily as 
usual — hey ? ” he asked, smiling. 

“ I could not sleep,” she answered, but so gravely that 
I saw it was not from the cause the baronet implied — the 
love that had kept me awake ; and then she added, “ I 
have been terribly frightened.” 

We looked at her in astonishment and anxiety. 

“ I will tell you all about it,” she continued, “ because 
you may be able to explain what perplexes me, and that 
will be a great relief.” 

She paused, as if to collect her thoughts, and then said : 

“ I was nearly asleep when I noticed a sound coming 
from the window. It was as if someone was rapping upon 
the glass — not loudly or quickly, but softly, as though 
with the tip of the finger, and at intervals. I might have 
counted twenty or thirty between one tap and the next. 1 


32 


THE GREAT I1E8PER. 


took little notice of it at first, thinking that as I had left 
the window partly open, it might he the wind moving the 
Venetian blind; but after awhile, the persistent tap — tap 
— tap irritated me. I rose and lit a candle, then 1 went 
to the window. The lattice was just as I had left it. The 
blind hung perfectly motionless. I drew it up and looked 
out. There was a gray mist everywhere. Not a breath 
of air stirred ; the flame of the candle burned as steadily 
as though the window had been closed. 1 let down the 
blind, and listened ; there was not the slightest sound.” 

“A moth on the ceiling,” said Sir Edmund ; “ they 
have worried me in the same manner. Then you get a 
light, and the thing stops.” 

“ Hold on, we ain’t heered the last on it, 1 kin see,” 
said the Judge, looking at Miss Lascelles intently, his 
shaggy brows bent over his quick eyes. 

“ I explained it as you do, papa. I put out the light, 
and tried to sleep. I heard no sound for quite ten min- 
utes, I think, and then again that soft, slow tap — tap — tap 
came from the window — the same sound, with the same 
long interval between them. It was not like the beat of a 
moth’s wing. It was like nothing but the touch of a hu- 
man linger. But I tried to think it was an insect in the 
wall— the insect that is called the ‘ death-watch.’ And I 
did my best to take no notice of it, but I could not help 
hearing it ; and after a time I grew frightened, and the 
sound grew dreadful in my ears. It became unendurable. 
1 could not lie there listening passively. I got up again, 
and struck a match. The wick of the candle was slow to 
light, and during those moments I noticed that the sound 
had ceased. As I say, I was frightened — very frightened. 
And the unbroken silence seemed more terrible than the 
sound. There was something ghostly and supernatural 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


S3 


about it, that brought back the old terror I used to feel as 
a child in passing the room that is said to be haunted at 
night. And just then the clock in the belfry struck. I 
dared not go to the window. My hand trembled so that 
I could not take up the candle, but I looked toward the 
window. The first thing that struck me was that the laths 
of the blind, instead of lying fiat, as they generally do, 
when down, and as I had left them, were opened and 
turned edgeway — do you know how I mean ? ” 

She held her hands, that trembled with the recollection 
of her terror, one above the other horizontally. 

“ But the next thing,” she continued, and then stopped, 
with a little shudder, while we who listened held our 
breath — “ the next thing I saw was two great black eyes 
that caught the light from my candle in between the low- 
er laths of the blind.” 

She paused, and then continued with more firmness — • 

“ I think I fainted — I must have done so, for I was con- 
scious of nothing after that, until I found myself upon the 
floor. The light was still burning upon the table. As 
recollection returned to me, I looked toward the window. 
The laths were no longer open, but turned fiat. Then it 
occurred to me that all I had seen was merely imagina- 
tive — that it was merely a realistic dream — that I had gone 
through these experiences in my sleep. My great terror 
was gone. I went without fear to the window to ascertain 
if the night was as I had seen it. There was the gray 
mist ; the flame of the candle did not flicker. Neverthe- 
less, when I looked down and saw how impossible it was 
for anyone to have stood outside the window, I felt con- 
vinced that at least the vision of the two eyes was imagi- 
nary — an outcome of the fear I felt when 1 looked toward 
the window. I lay down again, and though I could not 


34 


TBE GREAT BESPER. 


sleep for some time, I heard no further sound whatever, 
save the chiming of the clock.” 

“ Is it not very probable, my dear,” said the baronet, 
“ that the sound you speak of was also the outcome of 
fear ? ” 

“ I had no fear when I went first to the window. The 
sound was a reality. It is that I wish explained.” 

“Do you know what time it was when the tapping first 
began, Miss Laseelles \ ” Yan Hoeck asked. 

“ It was a quarter to one by my watch when I recovered 
from the fit.” 

“ May I ask, Miss, without offense, if a thing o’ this 
kind hes ever happened to you afore ? ” asked the Judge. 

“ As a child I was timid, but I cannot remember ever 
being so frightened.” 

“ You don’t look as if a trifle would skeer you, I will 
allow; ” and, rising from his chair, the Judge added, “if 
you’ll excuse me, I’ll go and prospect the place straight 
off, for I’m lorth to say it looks to me like as if the Kid 
had been taking a hand in this game.” 

“ By all means,” said the baronet ; “ the sooner the 
truth is discovered the better.” 

W e all went out on to the lawn which faced that part of 
the building in which Edith’s room was situated. 

On the way, Yan Hoeck, who had taken my arm for 
guidance, gripped it tightly and wdiispered : 

“ What did I tell you ? This is the beginning of the 
end.” 


THE GREAT HESTER. 


35 


CHAPTER VI. 

It is necessary for the reader to know what kind of 
building Monken Abbey was, and something of the disposi- 
tion of its rooms, in order to follow clearly the action of 
the drama that took place within its walls. I can do no 
better than to give the description by which I brought the 
facts home to the comprehension of my blind partner. 

“ Tell me what you see, Thorne,” he said, as we stood 
on the lawn. 

“ An old Gothic building, flanked by two later additions 
in the Tudor style, that project beyond it.” 

“ I don’t understand,” he said, impatiently ; “ can’t 
you make it clearer to me ? ” 

I had a note-book in my pocket ; pressing the metallic 
pencil hard upon the paper, I drew this rough diagram : 


He passed his sensitive fingers over the impression. 

“ The two end blocks are the additions yon- speak of, 
the space between them, the old part. I understand. 
Go on,” he said. 

“The great door is in the centre of the old part, the 
dining- room is on one side, the library on the other. The 
floor above is occupied by the picture-gallery. It has a 
gable roof, and the belfry rises from the middle. The 
block on the right and that on the left are alike. The 


36 


TEE GREAT IIESPER. 


ground floor is divided into drawing-rooms, sitting-rooms, 
kitchens, etc.” 

“ Where is the dairy, and the door that is left open at 
night for the Kid ? ” 

“ At the back of the house : it cannot be seen from 
here.” 

“ Is that in the right block or the left ? ” 

“ In the right ; the kitchen is in the left. On the first 
floor are the principal bedrooms ; the servants’ are above. 
Our rooms are in the right block, Sir Edmund’s and Miss 
Lascelles’s are in the left.” 

“What means of communication are there? For in- 
stance, how could Sir Edmund get to your room ? ” 

“ By simply passing through the picture-gallery.” 

“ I understand ; go on.” 

“ There are two oriel windows and a bay in the end of 
the left block facing us as we stand here.” 

I drew another diagram to explain the windows to Van 
Hoeck. Here it is — 


V — 

u The oriel on the left,” I continued, “ projects from 
Sir Edmund’s room, that on the right from Miss Las- 
celles’s. There are stone mullions at the angles of the 
oriel and lattice windows between, hung inside with Ve- 
netian blinds. I have marked a cross where Miss Las- 
celles saw the eyes looking through. The oriels are sup- 
ported by corbels. They are perfectly inaccessible from 
the ground except by a ladder.” 


THE GREAT II ESP Ell 


37 


a But from the story above ? ” 

“ There are no windows over the oriel. The only 
means of descent would be by a rope from the roof.” 

“ Are there any other means of getting at the win- 
dow ? ” 

“ None whatever that any human being could use.” 

“ What is this projection between the oriels ? ” he asked, 
feeling the paper. 

“ A two-sided bay carried up from the ground to the 
gable, pierced with latticed windows from top to bottom. 
It gives light to the stairs inside.” 

“ Do the windows open ? ” 
g “ Yes.” 

“ And what distance is there between the windows in 
the bay and Miss Lascelles’s window ?” 

“ Seven or eight feet at least.” 

“ And the wall between is perfectly flat ? ” 

“ There is a stone moulding runs along parallel with 
the floor of the first story and the base of the oriel.” 

“ Why didn’t you tell me that ? ” he asked, sharply. 

“ Because it is perfectly impossible for anyone to walk 
along it.” 

“ What width has it ? ” 

“ A few inches. It seems to be merely a stone gutter 
to carry off the water from the oriel.” 

“ Is there no ivy on the house — nothing to catch hold 
of?” 

“ There is no ivy, but there is a pipe midway between 
the bay and the oriel ; it descends from the gable to the 
gutter.” 

“ What ! and you tell me it is impossible to get from 
the bay to the window ! ” 

“ I still mean what I said. The gutter is so narrow 


33 


TEE GREAT HESPER . 


that no one, even facing the wall closely, could stand on 
it and maintain a centre of gravity.” 

“ But with the aid of the pipe ? ” 

“ The pipe is four feet from the bay, and four feet from 
the oriel. Now, suppose Lola, for I know whom you sus- 
pect, got from the window in the bay she would have to 
advance holding to the mullion of the window for sup- 
port, and with one hand only, until the other cou*ld touch 
the pipe, a span of four feet.” 

“ Four feet : that is not impossible, unless the girl is 
short limbed.” 

“ It is impossible, if in holding to the mullion or the 
pipe the girl had to support part of her own weight.” 

“ Let us go up and measure the width of the ledge,” 
said Van Hoeck ; “ it may appear from below less than it 
is.” 

We went up to my bedroom in the right block, which, 
as I have said,- corresponded in every external respect to 
the block on the left ; and from the oriel I measured the 
width of the stone ledge outside. Van Hoeck’s supposi- 
tion was just ; it was wider than I expected, measuring a 
trifle iess than my span, which is nine inches. Van Hoeck 
placed himself flat against a wall, and turning out his toes 
until he obtained the limit of width upon which he could 
sustain his equilibrium, bade me measure the distance be- 
tween his heel and the wall. I found it was fully three 
inches within my span, and was astonished to perceive 
upon how narrow a space one may stand with safety. 
This settled the point. Lola might well have passed 
along the ledge with safety. 

“Now,” said Van Hoeck, “draw me a plan of the 
rooms, roughly and broadly, showing their relative posi- 
tion to the stairs, the bay, and the picture-gallery.” 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


39 


I complied with his request, marking the several parts 
with figures, which I explained to him in the order 
marked below. 



i. Sir Edmund’s room. 

ii. Miss Lascelles’s. 

iii. Mine. 

iv. Lola’s, 
v. Brace’s. 


vi. Van Hoeck’s. 

vii. Picture Gallery. 

x. Stairs to landing of first floor, 
« Stairs to upper rooms. 


CHAPTER VII. 

But I was still incredulous, Ilow was the girl hiding 
in the woods all day to know of the existence of the ledge ? 
It was true she had access to the house at night, but I 
doubted if it were possible for her to see the ledge in the 
dark even from the bay window. But admitting the pos- 
sibility, would she risk her life for no purpose but to alarm 
Miss Lascelles ? There was too much strength in Lola’s 
character for such a senseless and feeble device to be ac- 
ceptable to her. It was not the act of a rational being, 
but of a mischievous or malevolent idiot. 

I was inclined to believe that the explanation Miss Las- 
celles had offered was a just one, and that what she had 
seen was purely imaginative and the result of fear, in- 
spired by those mysterious sounds which might yet be ex- 
plained. 


40 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


This was not Yan Iioeck’s opinion, nor was it Brace’s. 

“ I will not say the Kid has done it,” he said ; “ there’s 
no say in’ what greaser blood will not do. For the sake of 
argyment, we will say she did, but I ondertake she shall 
not play the same bower twice, if her father’s persuasion 
counts for anythin’ ; ” and he went off at once to search 
for Lola in the wood. 

When we were alone, Y an Iloeck, said : 

“ Ask Sir Edmund ; he will tell you, as he told me, that 
Brace was in the woods yesterday while you were philan- 
dering with Miss Lascelles. What was he there for but to 
find his daughter and employ her in working out this 
plot ? ” 

“ Good heavens ! ” I exclaimed, losing my temper ; 
“ what notion have you got hold of now ? Last night you 
suspected Sir Edmund — — ” 

“ I would suspect anyone who has the opportunity to 
possess himself of such a treasure as you hold. Do you 
blame the man who protects himself when his life is in 
danger ? That diamond is life to me ? What could I do 
if it were lost ? You hold that diamond — my life — in your 
keeping. You are bound to take every precaution for its 
safety. Yon have no right to despise my warning because 
it does not agree with your reckless trust in humanity.” 

“ Take the diamond into your keeping, if you think it 
is not safe in mine,” I said. 

“ You make that offer because you know I am powerless 
to accept it in my blind and helpless condition. How can 
I keep it against a man like Brace ? ” 

“ If you have more faith in my power to keep the dia- 
mond, why do you accuse me of neglecting its safety ? ” 

“ Because you blind yourself to the danger that exists. 
God ! ” he exclaimed, protruding his sightless eyes to the 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


41 


light, and clinching his hands in frenzy, “ to think that 
those who can see will not see ! ” 

“ What possible connection can there be ? ” I asked, 
“ between the safety of our diamond and the event of last 
night? ” 

“ A palpable connection. The event of last night was 
an abortive attempt to obtain the diamond.” 

As I heard this, and looked at Yan Hoeck, I almost 
doubted if he were in his right mind. 

“ The plot failed,” he continued, “ because the girl mis- 
took the room? 

An incredulous exclamation escaped me. 

“ You shall hear me,” he muttered, stretching his arm 
to the right and left until he encountered mine with his 
hand, and then clutching it tightly ; “you shall see — with 
my eyes, if not with your own. You have urged that the 
girl could know nothing of the disposition of the rooms ; 
but she i night receive instructions from her father. lie 
went into the wood to give her those instructions yester- 
da} r . Look at your plan ” — he handed me the diagram I 
had drawn at his request (see p. 39) — “ Brace, having 
his room at the back of the right block, would naturally 
tell her that when she got to the top of the stairs she was 
not to pass through the picture-gallery, but to go straight 
to the landing over the stairs she had ascended, open the 
window in the bay, which would then be on her left 
hand, and make her way to the oriel facing her. That, 
according to his calculation, would bring her to your 
window.” 

“ Certainly.” 

“ But he did not take account of the fact that the door 
by which the girl enters the house is at the back of the 
right block, and that the stairs by which she would ascend 


42 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


to the first floor bring her to the landing between Sir 
Edmund’s room and Miss Lascelles’s. Thus, though 
carrying out her father’s instructions to the letter, she 
must inevitably make her attempt upon Miss Lascelles’s 
room and not upon yours. Look at your plan.” 

“ I follow you perfectly well,” I said, astonished by the 
ingenuity of his explanation, which had made a perfectly 
incredible supposition possible — nay, for the moment, 
probable. 

“ Are you convinced ? ” he asked, triumphantly. 

“ You have yet to explain how Brace thought to obtain 
the diamond by the means he employed. lie would 
scarcely expect that / should faint with terror.” 

“ Who said he would ? Brace calculated upon dealing 
with a heavy sleeper, not a nervous girl. The tapping is 
described as soft and regular: it was intended to test 
whether you were asleep or not. The moment a light ap- 
peared the sound ceased — the girl had gone back to the 
bay. From the landing she could see when the light was 
put out, and it was safe to recommence the attack. The 
candle was lit with some difficulty the second time — Miss 
Lascelles possibly stood with her back to the window as 
she held the vesta. Lola may have detected the first 
glimmer, and uncertain or not whether it was safe to con- 
tinue, turned the blind and looked through. At that mo- 
ment the wick burned up, and Miss Lascelles, turning, saw 
the girl’s eyes between the laths. The knocking was not 
repeated, for a simple reason — Lola had discovered her 
mistake, and retreated. Do you doubt now the purpose 
with which Brace has gone to seek the girl to-day? ” 

I was forced to admit that this explanation was feasi- 
ble, yet I could not believe that Lola, who seemed sin- 
cerely attached to me, would consent to aid in my ruin 


THE GREAT BEEPER. 


43 


. merely at the instigation of her father, whose authority 
she habitually disregarded. I said this to Van Hoeck. 

“ It is because she is attached to you — because she 
loves you,” he replied, with emphasis, “ that she would 
readily eh ter into her father’s project to rob you of the 
diamond. The diamond is her enemy — it has separated 
you from her, and placed you side by side with Miss Las- 
celles, for whom she has manifested a jealous hatred from 
the very first. What could be more gratifying to her 
savage disposition than to take away the diamond that 
has created this difference between you and her, and to 
reduce you once more to her level. It is the only hope 
she can have of getting you away from Miss Lascelles, 
and restoring the former condition of equality upon which 
your companionship with her rested.” 

Again I was compelled to admit the force of Van 
Iloeck’s argument. 

“ But why,” I asked, “ should Brace trust such a peril- 
ous undertaking to his daughter ? ” 

“ For an obvious reason,” he replied. “ If you caught 
her in the act of robbing, you would not raise your hand 
against her ; if you caught him, you would blow his 
brains out. For her you would find excuse; for him 
none.” 

In this there was truth also. 

“ Talking of that,” he continued, “ what arms do you 
keep about you for defence ? ” 

“ None,” I replied. 

“I thought so. Take this,” he said, drawing a long 
clasp-knife from his breast-pocket. 

He showed the spring with which the narrow blade 
opened, and the catch which locked it at the back of the 
horn handle, and made me promise to use it for my de- 


44 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


fence, no matter who attacked me. I also promised to 
close my window, which I habitually kept open at night, 
and to secure the fastening of that, as w^ell as the door, 
before going to bed. Finally, he exacted that I should 
once more enclose the Plesper in the leather case, and 
strap it to my wrist the last thing at night. 

The Judge did not return until dusk. He was fa- 
tigued, and his general appearance indicated a pursuit 
through rough and thorny ways. 

“ I hev seen the Kid,” he said ; “ but she would not 
listen to reason ; and not bein’ afeered of spiling her 
clothes, she nat’rally got the best of the argument, and 
played it low down on her father.” 

He advocated starving her into better behavior, and 
would have had the door closed to cut off her com- 
munication with the dairy, but Miss Lascelles would 
not listen to this ; she would not yield to fear, and de- 
clined to change her room or alter her ordinary habi- 
tudes. 

We separated a little before eleven. The night was 
close and stuffy. I had no inclination to go to bed, espe- 
cially as I had given Yan Iloeck my word to close the 
window beforehand. 

There was a reading-lamp in my room. I lit it, put 
out the candle, and seated myself in a comfortable chair 
with a book. Hot a sound was to be heard after the 
clock struck eleven. I read on without moving from my 
chair until past twelve. From time to time I had taken 
my eyes from the book and listened intently — not in an- 
ticipation of hearing the mysterious tapping at my own 
window, but in apprehension of its being repeated upon 
Edith’s — and as the last stroke of midnight reverberated 
through the still night I closed my book and listened 


THE GREAT ITESPER. 


45 


again. The silence without was so complete that the 
burning of the oil in the lamp at my side was distinctly 
audible. 

At that moment I heard a board creak. It was so slight 
a sound that, had my attention been fixed upon the book, 
I should not have noticed it. I could not tell where it 
came from : I was not sure that it was not from the floor 
under my foot as I changed my position. Instinctively I 
looked toward the window. I could see nothing beyond 
the circle of light reflected by the lamp-shade. It was too 
absurd to take the lamp to the window— there was no 
board there to creak. I waited some minutes, and there 
being no repetition of the sound, I re-opened my book, but 
I paused witli my finger on the page toTisten once more. 
A shuddering sigh, like that of a child who is crying itself 
to sleep, reached my ear. 

I went to the window, drew up the blind softly, and 
looked out ; for the sound had seemed to come from a dis- 
tance, and I thought it might be the flutter of leaves in a 
breeze. But the night was unchanged — heavy and still, 
the moon obscured, and a thin gray veil of mist hanging 
over the lawn, as Edith had seen it the night before. I 
opened the door noiselessly. All was dark. I could see 
only the mullion of the bay standing out vaguely against 
the grayness. I listened. At night heavy curtains were 
drawn across the head of the corridor, shutting it off from 
the passage upon which it abutted at right angles : never- 
theless, I could hear the stertorous breathing of the Judge 
or Yan Iloeck from the rooms beyond. I was sure that 
the sound I had heard was not imaginary, and determined, 
if possible, to discover the cause. I went back to the ta- 
ble and fetched the lamp. 

I had returned to where I stood by the door, when my 


46 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


eyes fell upon something lying at the threshold. Another 
step, and I should have put my foot upon it. 

In steadying the shade, my left hand screened the light ; 
as I withdrew it I saw that the object at my feet was Lola ! 

She had curled herself upon the mat within the embra- 
sure of the door. Her face was toward me and pillowed 
upon her folded hands. She was asleep, yet her long black 
lashes were wet, and clung to her cheek with an undried 
tear. 

“Even Yan Hoeck, if he could see you now, poor 
child,” I said to myself, “ could not think ill of you.” 

I would not awake her ; I withdrew the light until she 
was in shadow, placed it on the table, fetched my book, 
and seated myself where I could read and yet watch the 
sleeper. As I did this, the clock in the belfry chimed the 
half-hour ; I looked at my watch, and saw that it was half- 
past twelve. 

I could not fix my attention upon the book for some 
time, my mind being occupied with conjectures to account 
for Lola’s presence. It fitted in with Van Iloeck’s theory 
and warning in some respects, yet — possibly because my 
judgment was biased by sentiment — I could not believe she 
had come there with any sinister intention. I was rather 
disposed to think that she had found solitude no longer 
bearable, and had sought this resting-place to be near the 
only friend she knew. 

As I pondered, my eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, 
and I could see dimly the girl’s face, her arms scarcely 
distinguishable against her dusky camisole, and the darker 
mass of her red petticoat. She did not move. If she had 
evaded her father, it is possible that she had fatigued her- 
self as well as him. My heart was stirred with pity, and 
1 resolved that when she awoke 1 would try, if she would 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


47 


listen to me, to reason her out of her savage isolation, and 
induce her to accept the kindness that Edith longed to 
bestow upon her. I would not purposely awake her, for 
in sleep there was the relative happiness of forgetfulness. 

It was past one when I again began to read. From 
time to time I looked away from the page and assured 
myself that she was still sleeping. And so I sat watch- 
ing and reading until past four o’clock, when the light be- 
gan to fail, my eyes grew heavy, and unconsciously I fell 
asleep. I was awoke by my book falling from my hands 
to the floor. The lamp was yet alight, but burning so 
dimly that, looking toward the door, I could see nothing. 
I carried the lamp that way. Lola was gone. 

When we met at breakfast, Edith was in her customary 
bright and cheerful mood. Reassured by her appearance. 
Sir Edmund said, smiling : 

“ Well, my dear, has there been any recurrence of 
strange sounds and spectral sights during the night ? ” 

“ Yes,” she answered ; “ but they did not frighten me, 
for I knew it was only poor Lola.” 

“ Lola ! ” I exclaimed. 

“ I had left a light burning,” she said ; “ the blinds 
were turned downward, and the light shone upon them ; 
the tapping woke me. It was just the same sound that I 
heard before. While I was looking at the blind before 
the open window, the tapping stopped, and I saw a finger 
come down between the third and fourth lath from the 
bottom, and turn the third ; after that the finger slid in 
between the next two, and turned the second. Then I saw 
her two lustrous black eyes looking through. Almost im- 
mediately afterward they disappeared. ‘ Don’t be afraid, 
Lola,’ I said, in a low voice, for I feared if she were 


43 


THE GREAT EES PER. 


frightened she might slip from that terribly narrow ledge. 
I waited a few minutes, to give her time to get back to 
the bay, if she intended to, and then I drew up the blind 
and looked out. There was no one there, and the window 
in the bay was as we left it last night — closed.’’ 

“ Are you sure it was, Lola ? ” I asked. 

“ Yes, they were her eyes.” 

“ Do you know what time it was when you saw her ? ” 
I asked. 

“ 1 can be sure of that, for in taking my watch from the 
stand, it fell, breaking the glass and stopping the hands, 
and very soon after that I heard the clock strike.” 

She showed me the watch, the minute-hand was so bent 
that it could not pass the hour-hand ; when I lifted it, the 
movement recommenced, proving that the spring had not 
run down. 

The hour marked by the hands was five minutes to one. 

“ At five minutes to one Lola was sleeping at my door” 
1 said. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

Edith could not say whether the laths she had seen 
turned were open when she went to the window, and there 
were no means of confirming the fact afterward, because 
in pulling up the blind they would, if open, be returned 
to their former position. In face of my evidence, she was 
firmly convinced that what she had seen and heard was an 
extraordinary illusion of the senses parallel to that which 
furnishes the sole excuse for a tolerably widespread belief 
in supernatural appearances. She was ashamed of the fee- 
bleness of mind which her experiences seemed to imply, 


THE GREAT HESPER . 


49 


and, resolved to overcome the weakness, she resisted all 
her father’s persuasions to change those conditions under 
which she had passed the last two nights. 

Van Iloeck alone refused to believe in Edith’s halluci- 
nation. 

“ One lias only to hear Miss Lascelles speak to discredit 
a notion of that kind,” he said ; “ she has every sign of 
mental vigor and physical strength, and to accuse such a 
girl of that kind of morbid insanity called hallucination is 
just as creditable to your understanding as to believe in 
the simplicity and honesty of a vagabond Californian card- 
sharper and the half-breed wench he chooses to call his 
daughter.” 

When night came, he said to me, after we had separated 
from the rest: 

“This is no time for sleep, Thorne; we must watch 
through the night, whether you like it or not, if it is only 
for Miss Lascelles’s sake.” 

I readily agreed to this, and for an hour we walked on 
a part of the lawn from which I could see Edith’s window. 
Then the rain, which had been drizzling for some time, 
fell heavily, and forced us to go in. 

We changed our boots for slippers, and sat together in 
my room, I with a book, he with his chin in his hands, his 
face hideous with the light of the lamp on his protruding 
eyes. 

Heaven knows, I was not wanting in love for Edith, or 
solicitude for her welfare, and yet I could not keep awake. 
It must be remembered that I had no sleep the preced- 
ing night, and that I did believe in Edith’s hallucination, 
and therefore saw no actual danger menacing her. I tried 
to interest myself in the book, but my thoughts grew con- 
fused, the type swam before my eyes, and helped to be- 
4 


50 


THE GREAT EESPER. 


in use my senses. At length I put down the book, and 
shaking my wits together, I said to Yan Hoeck : 

“ Let us talk.” 

“ Talk ! ” he muttered, scornfully ; “ why not ask me to 
sing you a comic song ! If the Kid were here I suppose 
you wouldn’t want me to amuse you. You could keep 
awake until three or four in the morning watching her, 
but as it’s only your future wife who is concerned, you are 
log-headed before midnight.” 

This sarcasm did not prevent me dozing again a few 
minutes later. I was ashamed of my drowsiness, and after 
a minute’s doze I would wake with a guilty start, only to 
drop off again in a few moments. I know not how long 
this had been goingon, when Yan Hoeck shook me by the 
arm, and woke me thoroughly. 

“ It is courting destruction to sit here with the door 
open,” he said, “ one of us blind, and the other dead 
asleep. I cannot stand it any longer ; it is intolerable. 
Tell me if it rains.” 

I went to the window, and found that the rain had 
ceased. I told him this. 

“ I will go out : take me down to the door,” he said. 

I led him down-stairs, and gave him his umbrella and 
hat. Then I took mine and opened the door quietly, fear- 
ing to awake Edith. I would have accompanied him, but 
he refused, saying night and day were alike to him, and he 
knew his way along the paths and about the lawn. 

“ Go back to your room and fasten yourself in,” he 
said, “ it is our only security. Tap at the window to let 
me know that all is fast. I beg you to do this,” he added, 
earnestly : “you cannot understand the feelings of a man 
in my position — the torture of conscious impotency as you 
feel the approaching fate that you are powerless to avert.” 


THE GREAT HE8PER. 


51 


His voice rattled in his throat, and indistinctly I heard 
him mutter, as he groped his way along the wall of the 
terrace : 

“ Cramped in a coffin, and the clods falling, falling ” 

I closed the door, and returned to my room with a shud- 
der. 

When I had fastened myself in I tapped at the window, 
and Van Hoeck replied by tapping on the wall below. 

The fresh air had revived me ; I had no longer to strug- 
gle with an irresistible drowsiness — the inclination to sleep 
was gone. 

I had my book to finish, but my mind was not suffi- 
ciently composed to read. As I walked about the room I 
thought of Edith and of Van Hoeck, wondering if there 
could be any connection between her strange hallucination 
and the terrible presentiment which night and day pos- 
sessed him. It seemed as if there must be something ab- 
normal in the conditions under which we lived, to produce 
an effect which, though characterized by different peculi- 
arities, was in both cases attributable only to a disordered 
imagination, and I wondered if I, in my turn, should come 
under this occult influence. 

I might have been occupied with the speculation for half 
an hour or more when I heard a scream of terror that I 
could not doubt came from the wing in which Edith lay. 
In an instant I opened the door and ran through the cor- 
ridor. The doors in the picture-gallery wei'eopen. As I 
drew aside the curtains which closed in the staircase corri- 
dor of the left wing, I saw Sir Edmund come from his 
room with a lamp. The door of Edith’s room exactly 
faced his ; it was wide open ; all was dark within. 

“ What is it, my dear, what is it ? ” he called, as he en- 
tered the room. 


52 


THE GREAT HESTER. 


There was no answer. 

I followed to the door. Sir Edmund was standing by 
the empty bed looking around him in blank dismay. 

“ She is gone,” he gasped. “ The door was wide 
open ” 

The bed stood away from the wall. I bade Sir Ed- 
mund look on the further side. 

There was scarcely room for him to pass between the 
foot of the bed and the wall, but as he lowered the light, 
he said, in quick alarm : 

u She is here — unconscious — ring the bell for the 
women.” 

I ran to the bell and rang it violently ; then from the 
stairs in the cross-gallery I called to the servants to come 
down. In the meanwhile Sir Edmund had raised Edith 
and placed her on the bed, where she lay like one dead. 

From his room I got a spirit-case, but we knew not how 
to apply the remedies at our hand, and it was an intense 
relief to us when the housekeeper bustled in, followed by 
Edith’s maid, for we were as helpless as children in this 
emergency. 

The housekeeper told me to leave the room. I went to 
the door, and stood there, trembling from head to foot. 

I had taken Edith’s hand, and the icy coldness of the 
lifeless fingers that I had only known quick with warm 
blood chilled my very heart with fear. 

There was a long period of terrible suspense, and then 
I heard the dear voice murmur, and my heart bounding 
with joy, I ventured forward that 1 might see the life 
once more in her beautiful face. Sir Edmund stopped 
me on the threshold. 

“ Thank God ! ” he said, fervently, “ she has come back 
to us ; but the women say she must be kept quiet. Go 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


53 


hack to your room, my dear fellow, and we will talk it all 
over at breakfast-time. Good-niglit, good-night.” 

I returned reluctantly to my room. As I passed his 
chamber I heard the J udge snoring loud and long. 

It needed something more than such trifles to wake him 
when he had a bed to sleep in. 

What already puzzled me was how Edith’s door came to 
be wide open when she had fainted in a quite remote part 
of the room. 


CHAPTER IX. 

What happened in Edith’s room that night I did not 
learn until tlie next morning, but I will give her account 
in this place in order to preserve the sequence of events. 

True to her resolve, she had left the window open and 
the blind down, exactly as on the preceding nights. It 
was her habit to lock the door, and that she did not omit 
to do so on this occasion she was convinced by the fact 
that she found some difficulty in turning the key, and had 
afterward tried the handle to know if the bolt was shot. 
She left the lamp burning on the table, screened from her 
by the lace curtains of the bed. It was half past eleven 
when she lay down, and she felt so little fear that she fell 
asleep almost immediately. 

A pillow slipping from beneath her head awoke her, 
she believed. Her first consciousness was that her head 
felt uncomfortably low. She put her hand out to find if 
she had slipped to the edge of the bed ; but no, her posi- 
tion was unchanged. 

Then it struck her that she had left a light on the table ; 
it was now out, and all was dark. 


54 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


She wondered if this was a trick of imagination. Was 
she awake or asleep ? She touched her eyes to be sure 
they were open. Then it occurred to her that she might 
have been asleep a long while. There was nothing ex- 
traordinary in a lamp going out, or her head slipping 
from the pillow. Saying this to herself, she felt for the 
pillows. 

To her astonishment she found that both were gone. 

It was droll. She felt inclined to laugh, thinking how 
she must have tossed about in her sleep to knock both pil- 
lows out. But the bedclothes were perfectly smooth, the 
bed on each side ‘of her even, and soft, and yielding. That 
was strange ! 

“ I must have done all the tossing with my head,” she 
said to herself, still tickled by the oddity of the thing. 

One thing was certain — she could not sleep in comfort 
with nothing but a bolster under her head. 

She leaned out and felt upon the floor as far as she could 
reach to the right. The pillows had not slipped out on 
that side. Then putting her shoulder against the wall she 
felt down on the left. There was nothing there. What 
did it all mean ? Decidedly this must be a new freak of 
her imagination. 

She was not yet thoroughly frightened. The spirit who 
could steal her pillows must have some sense of humor ; 
it was preferable to drumming on the window-panes and 
glaring through the blinds at her. Hearing and sight had 
been tried, and now her sense of touch was to be tested. 

But though she tried to make light of the affair, she felt 
that something terrible underlay its comic aspect, and a 
little shiver ran through her at the thought of getting up 
and striking a light. It was so much easier to be coura- 
geous in the daylight than in such darkness as this. 


THE GREAT HESTER. 


55 


After all, perhaps the pillows had slid out of the bed in 
a natural way, and lay only just a little beyond her reach. 
But rather than stretch her arm out again in the dark 
space, she preferred to put up with the bolster doubled. 

She doubled the bolster and gave it a little pat ; then she 
put up a lock of hair that had come down, and told herself 
not to be stupid about a little thing like that ; and, wonder- 
ing whether she should dare to tell of this incident in the 
morning, she dropped on her elbow, and laid down her 
head — down, down, down till it touched the bed. 

“ What was this ? ’’ she asked herself, starting up in a 
fright. She felt from side to side ; now the bolster was 
gone ; there was nothing there but the bed. 

But this pantomime trick was no longer comic. She felt 
the tears of fright springing in her eyes, and something 
rising in her throat. Cold fear chilled her to the bone. 

Was she in reality awake? The striking of the clock in 
the belfry assured her of that. 

Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong it lightly 
chimed : and the hour was tolled out slowly, sonorously, 
solemn : 

Boom, boom, boom, boom. 

But if this was not hallucination, what was it ? The 
work of actual hands ? What then ? If they had no more 
direful intention than to play a trick of this kind, they 
were not to be feared. It was not terrific ; it was merely 
childish mischief, and this reflection suggested that, after 
all, it might only be Lola who was trying to frighten her. 
And just for one moment, as she leaned back on her 
elbow, she fancied she saw something like those luminous 
eyes in the midst of the darkness, and close to her — there ! 
there, above her, toward the side of the bed . 

“ Is it you, Lola ? ” she asked, but in a voice so faint, 


56 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


for she was sick with fright, that she herself could hardly 
hear the words she spoke. 

It was a fancy, or the eyes were turned away. Yet, 
still leaning upon her elbow that quivered under her, she 
strained her eyes to penetrate the darkness. 

Not long, perhaps, though it seemed so, her heart beat- 
ing painfully, her mouth parched and dry, the hot breath 
catching the back of her throat. 

Something seemed to be touching her hair. Was it the 
lace curtain ? 

She raised her trembling hand, and felt something level 
with the top of her head. But it was not the curtain. It 
was the pillow, or she was mad. 

Her strength gave way, and she fell back upon the bed ; 
but the terrible suspicion that the pillows had been with- 
drawn for the purpose of smothering her made her throw 
her hand up. 

The pillow had descended : it was close to her face. 
She tried to scream, but the pillow was already upon her 
mouth, and smothered the cry. 

It closed down upon her head, firm and hard. She 
could no longer breathe. It pressed upon her throat, as 
she lay with the back of her head pushed down into the 
bed. 

The touch of Death aroused the instinct of self-preser- 
vation within her, and, with a frantic effort, she tore her- 
self from under that suffocating pressure, flung herself 
from the bed, and, as respiration returned, cried with all 
her force for help. 


THE ORE AT HE S PER. 


57 


CHAPTER X. 

Ignorant of what had occurred in Edith’s room before 
her cry for help, 1 paced my room, thinking how terrible 
the fright must have been that made her faint a second 
time, and despite her belief in the unreality of these mys- 
terious appearances. 

“ Your turn will come,” Van Hoeck had said to me, 
and these words coming back to my mind, I asked myself 
if the repeated attacks upon Edith might not be part of a 
complicated scheme to obtain the diamond. 

Such a plot was the more possible because it seemed im- 
possible. An act of legerdemain succeeds or not, accord- 
ing to the skill with which the conjurer fixes our attention 
on a false train of operations while he works out the actual 
feat. As I made these reflections, I took the Great Hes- 
per from the pouch on my waist strap, and buckled it in 
its case upon my left wrist ; then I doubly locked the door, 
saw that there was oil in the lamp, put a box of wax 
matches beside it on the table, and finally opened the long- 
bladed knife Van Hoeck had given me, and stuck it be- 
tween the mattress and the side of the bedstead. 

The room was thickly carpeted and oak-panelled. The 
furniture — with the exception of the toilet arrangements 
and a low, saddle-backed chair — was antique and of oak. 
The bedstead was particularly wide, with four carved pil- 
lars carrying a baldaquin and heavy curtains of some thick 
brocaded stuff, looped at the foot, but hanging loose at 
the head ; it faced the oriel. 

Between the right side of the bed and the wall was a 
square table — on which stood the lamp — with the saddle- 
back chair beside it. On the left-hand side of the bed 


58 


TRE GREAT I1ESPER. 


was a tall carved black press. A large chimney, with a 
sculptured mantel and an open hearth, faced the door. A 
screen shut off the wash-stand, which stood to the left of 
the oriel. A broad settle with a valance, and covered with 
a stuff similar to the hangings of the bed, ran round the 
three-sided recess formed by the window — curtains of the 
same kind shut off this recess. A corner cabinet, with 
folding-doors in the lower part, fitted the angle of the 
walls to the right ; between this and the door was a deep, 
wide, and long chest, and above it a large mirror. An 
escritoire, some high-backed chairs, and a second table, 
completed the furniture. There was no door but the one 
opening upon the corridor, and no window save the oriel. 

In the early part of the night I had described these par- 
ticulars to Yan Hoeck, at his request, and he had made 
me examine the press, the old chest, the hangings of the 
bed and settles ; everything, in fact, which might afford a 
hiding-place to Lola or another. 

I had even gone down upon my knees, and looked under 
the bed, to appease his anxiety. And yet now a vague 
uneasiness possessed me as I raised the lamp-shade, and 
looked round the room. The dark oak wainscot, the 
sombre hangings, the painted ceiling overhead, absorbed 
the light ; there was a black void on the opposite side of 
the bed, where the light from the lamp was intercepted by 
the curtains ; I could not see even the outline of the great 
press. 

I readjusted the shade, turned the wick higher, and, 
half-undressed, threw myself upon the bed. I was not 
afraid — in strength 1 was a match for any natural foe, and 
I did not believe in the existence of any other — yet I felt 
myself infected with Yan Hoeck’s presentiment of impend- 
ing calamity. 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


59 


Van Hoeck’s theory of Lola’s complicity in a plot to 
steal the diamond, had been upset by the fact that I was 
watching her asleep at my door at the very time Edith be- 
lieved she saw the girl looking through the blinds ; but this 
had in nowise shaken his conviction that the mysterious 
appearance was connected with the scheme to rob us. 

“ Are a man’s convictions to be limited by his senses?” 
he asked. “ You are convinced that a cloud is rising in 
the horizon because you see it, but am I to deny its exist- 
ence because I have no sight ? Are you justified, then, in 
declaring that we are not menaced by this disaster which 
is to overwhelm us because you have not my faculty of 
prevision ? You who cannot deny prescience to a bee, the 
presentiment of coming storm to cattle, tell me that my 
conviction is nothing. It is only by conviction that we 
live. What saves us from destruction but the conviction 
that, by stepping into an abyss, we must fall ? I tell you 
to look about you ; we are on the edge of an abyss. There 
are signs to strike the dullest intelligence. Your turn 
will come ! ” 

I had hung my watch in the pocket upon the hanging at 
the head of the bed ; its lively ticking sounded strangely 
out of keeping with the gloom and stillness of the sur- 
roundings. The shaded light gave a funereal aspect to 
the bed-hangings ; the baldaquin over my head might have 
been a catafalque for the dead. I wondered how many 
men had ended their days on this bed since those hangings 
had been put up. Would Yan Hoeck’s presentiment be 
fulfilled ? Should I be found there in the morning dead ? 

It was well suited for a murder that bed, with its pall- 
like hangings to conceal the lurking murderer. 

Tic-tac, tic-tac, tic tac, tic-tac, tic-tac. 


60 


THE GREAT BESPER. 


My ear had become so familiar to the brisk movement 
of my watch that the slightest sound was audible above it. 
And a sound, slight indeed, I heard. 

To my mind, dwelling then upon assassins, it sounded 
like the drawing of a dagger from its sheath. 

Turning my head toward the side from which the sound 
seemed to proceed, I fancied I saw the heavy curtain move : 
it was between me and the lamp. The movement was as 
slight as the sound. If it was a fact that I heard one, it 
was a fact that I saw the other. 

I drew myself up gradually, and, leaning forward, I 
suddenly flung back the curtain with my left hand. There 
was no resistance to my hand ; nothing to be seen beyond 
but the lamp burning steadily on the table, the saddle- 
back chair, and the dim outline of the big chimney-piece. 

I got upon my knees, and pushed the curtain flat against 
the wall, to be sure that there could by no possibility be 
anyone concealed in the heavy folds — to assure myself 
that my suspicion was utterly without foundation. 

This end of the room was comparatively light, and the 
saddle-back chair was so placed as to preclude the possi- 
bility of any one hiding beyond it. 

If the curtain had indeed moved, it must have been by a 
hand from under the bed. It was easier to believe that I 
had been mistaken in seeing the slight movement than to 
suppose that I had overlooked a concealed thief when I 
looked under the bed to satisfy Y an IToeck ; so I let the 
curtain fall, and lay down again. 

My thoughts still dwelt upon the idea of assassination. 
Setting aside the idea of an intrigue in which Lola was 
concerned, there was yet nothing preposterous in Yan 
Iloeck’s presentiment. There were eight or ten servants 
in the house, and undoubtedly every one of them knew of 


THE GREAT HESPER, 


61 


the marvellous treasure in my keeping. They would tell 
their friends in the adjacent village, the keepers, the 
tradespeople — in a few days the story would be carried 
about and made known to hundreds ; and was there none 
among them whose cupidity might take practical form? 

It w r as quite possible that under this very roof there was 
one with the ingenuity and daring to plan and execute the 
robbery. A servant intimately acquainted with the ar- 
rangement of the rooms and the peculiarities of the build- 
ing would probably know of the external means of com- 
munication between the bay and the oriel windows. With- 
out this knowledge, no one, it seemed to me, would dare 
to attempt that hazardous passage at night and in the 
dark ; but with that knowledge, and possibly some previous 
practice, the feat was sufficiently practicable. In that 
case, Edith might actually have heard and seen what she 
had since attributed to imagination. 

But what end could be served by these repeated at- 
tacks upon her sensibility ? 

A cause is sometimes discovered by examining the ef- 
fect. Now, what effect had been produced by these at- 
tacks ? The first had frightened Edith excessively ; the 
second had made a slighter impression — thus far the ef- 
fect had been confined to her ; but the third — for only to 
a third fright could I attribute her scream of terror — had 
brought her father and myself from our rooms. In- 
stantly, something like the truth flashed upon my mind : 

To bring me from my room was the very object with 
which the attack upon Edith had been made. 

Unriddling the mystery with this key, I assumed that 
the thief had watched me close the door upon Yan Iloeck 
and return to my room ; that, after allowing me sufficient 
time to get into bed, but not to fall into sound sleep, he 


62 


TEE GREAT EESPER. 


had made the attack upon Edith, opening her door be- 
forehand to provide a speedy means of escape and to al- 
low her cry to be more distinctly heard ; that, having suc- 
ceeded in terrifying her, he had sped down the stairs in 
the left block, passed through the library and dining- 
room, and ascended by the stairs in the right block about 
the same time that I might be supposed to have reached 
Edith’s room, and that,, reckoning upon my keeping the 
Great Ilesper under my pillow, and leaving it there in 
my alarm upon Edith’s account, he had expected to have 
possessed himself of our treasure. If what I thus as- 
sumed was the fact, then, indeed, this plan might have 
succeeded but for Van Hoeck’s prudent insistence upon 
my strapping the diamond to my wrist. 

As I thus explained what had happened, a more start- 
ling reflection occurred to my mind. The thief had been 
disappointed in not finding the diamond beneath my pil- 
low, but he yet might not have relinquished the hope of 
getting it. 

He might not have left the room. He might be hidden 
there at that very moment ! 

What was more easy, being in the room, than to con- 
ceal himself in it? The curtain that masked the oriel, 
the great chest, the settle, the press, were all suggestive of 
that course. The fellow might be under the very bed I 
was lying upon ! 

The movement I had seen in the curtain, the sound 
similar to the drawing of a blade from its sheath (which 
might well have been caused by the movement of the 
heavy valance of the bed), strengthened the suspicion. 
Was he lying there, waiting for the sound of my heavy 
breathing to assure him that I slept ? 

There was scarcely the necessity to wait for that, for 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


63 


wliat resistance could I, lying upon my back there, make 
against a foe springing out of the dark upon me ? ” 

I thought of the clasp-knife Van Hoeck had given me, 
and, stretching out my hand, I felt for it where I had 
struck it — between the mattress and the bedstead. I 
could not find it. 

Pushing back the curtains so that the light from the 
lamp fell upon the edge of the bedstead, I assured myself 
that it was not where I had left it. It must have slipped 
through — or been drawn out. 

The latter supposition explained the sound and move- 
ment I had heard and seen. Yet it might have made that 
sound in slipping through — its fall upon the floor deadened 
by the carpet, on its point sticking in the boards ; but I 
fancied the horn handle was too wide to allow of its slip- 
ping through. 

To satisfy myself at once upon this point, I leaped out 
of bed, resolved to strike a match and look under the 
valance. I stood for a moment stupefied : the box of ves- 
tas was gone from the table where I was certain I had laid 
them. 

They must have been taken while I lay screened by the 
bed-curtains. 

I glanced over my shoulder. 

The folds of the curtain against the bed were not the 
same as when I pushed them back to the wall ; one fold 
stood out at an angle ; and as, slowly turning round, I 
looked more closely, I saw against the dark oak panel of 
the wall, about the mid-height of a man, and protruding 
but an inch or so from the edge of the curtain, the bright 
point of a knife-blade. 

Now, indeed, there was no longer any doubt. The man 
who had come to rob was there to murder me. Had I 


GI 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


stopped but another moment on the bed he might have 
knifed me. 

What was I to do? I had him standing there behind 
the curtain at a certain advantage. 

Should I spring upon him and strangle him against the 
wall in the folds of the curtain ? 

Is was not a sure victory for me, and a partial one might 
in the end be fatal. The thick stuff would prevent my get- 
ting a firm grip of him, and his right hand, the one that held 
the knife, was free. My chance was too small, the danger 
too great to justify that attack, though the muscles of my 
arms and fingers were strung up to make the tempting effort. 

Keeping my eye upon the curtain, I drew back to the 

foot of the bed. To get to the door I must cross the room, 

and inevitably be seen by the murderous rascal as he stood 

there on the inner side of the bed-curtain ; and, arrived 

at the door, I must turn the key twice, and the handle as 

well, before he overtook me. On the other hand he had 

to disengage himself from the folds of the curtain and re- 
ts n 

cover the start I had of him. 

The chances were pretty equal, and I determined to save 
myself by flight rather than risk the fatal result of the un- 
equal encounter. 

I made my way noiselessly in a straight line down the 
room until I got opposite the door, then I made a rush 
for it across the open space. I got to the door, and with 
furious haste groped about for the key — it was gone ! 

I grasped the handle, in the hope that I might be able 
to tear the lock off ; the screw had been taken out, and the 
knob slid off the spindle in my hand. I was lost. 

It astonishes me now to think with what celerity and, 
adroitness these precautions against my escape had been 
made. 


THE GREAT IlESPER. 


G5 


The man had not rushed after me ; there was no desper- 
ate pursuit of that kind ; he knew I was trapped. Only 
as I turned my eyes back to the place where he stood, I 
perceived that the light was dying out. 

There was but a narrow row of blue flame above the 
wick ; it faded away, and all was dark. 

There are degrees of darkness : this seemed to me the 
last degree. I felt as if I was sunk in a lake of pitch. 

If I called for help, it was not certain that the heavy- 
sleeping Judge would hear me. Possibly Sir Edmund 
was yet awake, but I thought of Edith, and besides I knew 
that before assistance could come, before the door could 
be burst, all would be over. 

Probably my foe was already approaching me ; my cry 
would be the signal for him to spring upon me. 

Ho, my only chance of escape was in maintaining si- 
lence, and keeping him in ignorance of my position. If 
accident brought us into contact, I trusted to my physical 
strength and good luck to be a match for him and his 
knife in the subsequent struggle. The diamond buckled 
to my wrist might serve me in the fight ; I might stun the 
fellow with it if fortune only favored my arm. 

It was a duel between us, and any way, I would sell my 
life dearly. 

With this resolve, I drew away from the door toward 
that part of the room where, as I fancied, the carved 
press stood. I kept my arms free, my body crouched to- 
gether, and every muscle tense and ready. 

I backed a few feet from the door, and then I stopped, 
as the reflection crossed my mind that I might be backing 
toward my adversary ! Then I regretted that I had left 
the door, where at least I might have stood safe from a 
rear attack. 


66 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


I could hear nothing but the throbbing of the blood in 
my temples and the quick tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac, 
tic-tac of my watch behind me, yet I knew that the mur- 
derer must be moving. 

He had his work to do, and must have made up liis 
mind how to do it before putting out the light. I could 
see nothing, and the silence and darkness were horrible, 
with the possibility of his falling upon me from behind. 
Yet how was I to guard against that attack, not knowing 
where he was ? Possibly his visual power was stronger 
than mine. 

I knew by the ticking of my watch that the bed was 
somewhere behind me, and that I ought to be facing the 
oriel ; and as I strained my eyes to catch any rays of light 
that might exist, I fancied I detected a dim gray seam in 
the blackness before me — possibly the curtains masking 
the oriel were slightly parted. 

As I continued to stare in that direction, I became con- 
vinced that this was the fact, and slight though the assur- 
ance was, it gave me some feeling of security ; in that 
direction I might know of my foe’s approach. And, sure 
enough, at that very moment the gray seam was blocked 
out. 

He was there, between me and the oriel. My first im- 
pulse was to end the terrible suspense, and spring forward 
upon him ; but prudence checked me. 

He might be close to me, or he might be close to the 
oriel — it was impossible for me to tell merely by the ab- 
sence of a faint light. If, in springing forward, I fell 
short of him, it would be all over with me. My force ex- 
pended in the spring, he would have me at his mercy, and 
a short death was the only kind of mercy 1 had to ex- 
pect. Again, what feeble light there was must fall upon 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


07 

me, as I faced it — an advantage for him, a terrible peril 
for me. 

I resolved to back toward the wall at the upper end of 
the room, and guided still by the ticking of my watch, I 
drew back with the stealthy caution of a cat. 

Suddenly I saw the gray seam of light again. Had he 
gone to the right or left ? I knew not. Quickly I 
stretched my foot out behind me; I felt something, and 
for the instant thought I had touched the fellow, but, as 
turning about I groped my hand forward, I encountered 
the cold wood-work of the bedstead. It was one of the 
carved pillars. I drew myself up, and put my back 
against it. How, at least, that dreaded stab in the back 
was less probable. 

I am not a coward, yet I own that the terror of the fol- 
lowing minutes thrills me now as I look back upon it. 
The impenetrable darkness, the silence rendered only 
more intense by contact with the perpetual tic-tac, tic- 
tac, tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac of the watch behind me, were 
made terrific by the awful uncertainty of my position. 

I stood there waiting for the attack, until, the suspense 
growing intolerable, I felt that I must end it by shouting 
aloud to Brace, and precipitating the final struggle. 

“ I will wait five minutes longer, and no more,’’ I said 
to myself, resolving to calculate the space fairly, and with 
due allowance for false impressions. I calculated that 
two minutes had passed, when I fancied I heard the bed 
creak behind me. Was this one of the false impressions 
I had promised myself to guard against, or was the 
sound caused by the man mounting upon the bed behind 
me ? 

The hair bristled upon my head as I thought I heard 
the creak repeated ; yet I stood there, and counted 


63 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


another minute, with every nerve and fibre prepared to 
spring awaj^. 

“ Now, surely four minutes are up,” I thought, and 
drew my head down into my shoulders, for, as surely as if 
my eyes had been turned that way, and the full light of 
the sun shining in the room, I knew that the man was be- 
hind me on the bed. 

I drew a deep inspiration, resolved to shout my loudest 
to Brace, but before the sound had passed my lips a towel 
was drawn tight upon my face, and my head jerked back 
against the post behind me. A fold of the towel gagged 
me completely ; it was with difficulty I breathed. I 
struggled, but in vain, to wrench myself away ; a quick 
and sure hand had knotted the towel. I threw up my 
hands to tear the thing off ; in an instant they were en- 
veloped in the thick curtains, and though the fellow had 
not sufficient strength to tie them down to my side, he at 
least baffled my attempts to free my head. I drew my 
feet from the ground, hoping that my weight would drag 
my head from the towel ; I only succeeded in drawing 
the knots tighter, and half strangling myself. 

As I could not release my head, I got my arms down, 
and tried to seize the rascal’s feet, but he kept them be- 
yond my reach ; yet I got something by the attempt, 
for, in groping about, I laid my hand upon the knife 
which he had thrust in the bed, to have free use of his 
hands, the better to overcome the resistance of my arms. 
I should have had no hesitation in ham-stringing the ras- 
cal if I could have got at his legs, but as I could not'do that, 
I determined, if possible, to keep the knife out of his way. 

I felt, by the horn handle, that it was the one Van 
Hoeck had given me ; and, knowing the trick of the blade, 
I shut it up, and slipped it into my pocket. 


THE GREAT HESTER 


G9 


“ Now,” thought I, “ if only thews and sinews are con- 
cerned, we will see who can get the best of it.” 

And with redoubled efforts, I struggled to tear down 
the bed-curtains that hampered my movements ; and, 
maddened by the difficulty of respiration, I threw such 
force into my efforts, that the pole upon which they hung 
crunched under the rings, and finally came rattling down 
about us. Would that the lamp had been near, to be 
smashed by the fall I The noise was too slight to be heard 
at a distance. 

My left hand being free, I felt again for the knot of the 
towel that bound me to the post. A bony hand grasped 
my wrist, and dragged it over my shoulder, and the next 
moment I felt something pressed under my nose, and a 
liquid trickling through my mustache on to my lips. It 
had a sweet taste, and a strong smell of apples, that 
mounted at once to my brain. I seemed to be no longer 
touching the ground, but whirling round and round 
through space ; my arms dropped by my side. 

I knew that I was powerless, yet I retained a certain 
kind of consciousness. I was sensible that the difficulty 
of breathing no longer troubled me. I knew that the 
man was binding my arms to the post, and I remember 
thinking, in the bemused manner of a half-intoxicated per- 
son, what a fool he must be to bind me when I could no 
longer make resistance. I was perfectly conscious when 
he began to tie my feet to the post below, for I had then 
sufficiently overcome the effect of the opiate to think of 
resistance. I tried to struggle and to scream, but to no pur- 
pose : my will had lost all power over my muscle. And 
this terrible impotency reminded me of Yan Hoeck’s 
half-uttered simile : “ Cramped in a coffin, and the clods 
falling— falling ! ” 


70 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


What astonished me was the surprising facilit} 7 with 
which the man executed his work in the darkness that 
then prevailed. He seemed to have no difficulty at all in 
finding the ends of the sheets with which he bound me, 
and knotting them securely. And when I was safely pin- 
ioned, he unbuckled the strap that bound the Great Iles- 
per to my wrist, without having to seek for the tongue of 
the strap, as I myself might have had to do. 

“ Well, that’s gone,” I said to myself; “ and, now he 
has the diamond, he will go too.” 

But he had not yet finished. And after a brief inter- 
val, during which he might have been buckling the Great 
Ilesper upon his own wrist, I heard a sound that I knew 
only too well. 

Click ! 

It was the spring that locked the long blade of my 
clasp-knife when it was opened. 


CHAPTER XI. 

That sound warned me that the end was near. Not 
content with taking the diamond, the scoundrel intended 
to have my life — to remove the possibility, if possibility 
existed, of being identified as the thief by me. 

He set about his work with devilish circumspection. I 
heard the metal rings clink as he took up the fallen cur- 
tain from the floor and folded it, and the bed creaked as 
he got upon it. As he approached from behind, he 
steadied himself by setting one hand upon my shoulder. 
Then he laid the folded curtain over my other shoulder, 
and his bony knuckles touched my chest as he arranged 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


n 


the stuff over my breast. I knew what that meant : it 
was to prevent the betraying blood from spurting upon 
his arm. 

In the pause that followed, I fancied he must be turn- 
ing up his sleeve, as a butcher does who has a beast to 
slaughter. 

A thousand thoughts whirled through my mind in that 
brief space ; but a great awe came upon me as I felt his 
hand firmly grasp my left shoulder, for then I realized 
that I was on the very brink of eternity. 

A feeling of regret for the ill use I had made of many 
days — for the loss of Edith, and the world which she had 
filled with joy and hope ; a deep and tender wish for her 
happiness, and the welfare of the companions who had 
toiled with me to win the Hesper, took the place of terror, 
and it was with something like resignation that I awaited 
death. 

As he grasped my left shoulder, I felt him lean over my 
right, and the next moment he stabbed me. 

He had not used sufficient force, for the knife-point 
stuck in one of the ribs under my left breast, and went no 
further. 

He pulled the knife out and tried again, but this time 
the blade scarcely punctured my skin. 

Then seeing that the thickness of the doubled curtain 
was too great an impediment, he unfolded and rearranged 
it, passing his hand over my breast and pressing his fingers 
here and there to ascertain whether he had got it right for 
his purpose. It was then that, my nature revolting against 
this barbarous refinement of cruelty, I prayed like Samson 
for strength, and made one more effort to break my bonds. 

The twisted sheets and firm knots withstood the strain, 
but the effort saved my life. The calculating villain knew 


72 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


that I must exhaust my strength in a few minutes, and 
would not risk breaking his knife, or getting smeared with 
my blood as I writhed. 

And presently my force gave out, and, all hope leaving 
me, I ceased to struggle, and was callous ‘to his touch, 
when he once more touched my shoulder. 

But in that moment of dread silence, when his knife 
must have been raised to strike the final blow, the door- 
handle turned, and I felt his grasp relax — nay, his fingers 
tremble as they lay on my shoulder. 

There was an interval of a minute, and the door-handle 
turned again ; then a voice, that I recognized as Lola’s, 
spoke in a low tone outside. 

“ Are you there — you 2 ” A moment’s pause, and she 
added, “You ain’t sick, are you ? ” 

She had come to my door and heard me writhing against 
the post. 

What would the rascal do now ? his hand still trembled. 
It gave me courage, for it showed that he feared discovery, 
and I knew he would not risk his own neck for the mere 
pleasure of killing me. I put out my strength again, mak- 
ing the bed-post snap under my strain. 

“ Shall I sing out ? ” Lola asked, a little louder and with 
an accent of alarm. 

The hand slipped from my shoulder and down my arm 
as the villain stepped from the bed. Ilis position was 
getting more perilous. If Lola “sung out” there would 
be little chance of his making off with the diamond. 

I had loosened the towel that bound my head and 
gagged me. I wriggled about furiously, worked the fold 
out of my mouth, and got my chin above it, breathing 
freely for the first time since I had been tied up. At the 
same moment I heard the key turn in the door, and I 


THE GREAT UESPER. 


73 


knew that the murderer intended to let Lola in and silence 
her. 

“ Take care, take care ! ” I shouted, as loudly as the 
towel that still covered my face would permit. 

Another wriggle, and I felt that the upper part of my 
face was uncovered. Moreover, I distinguished a long 
gray patch before me. The curtain of the oriel had been 
drawn back ; the light had sensibly increased during the 
time occupied by the events I have narrated. 

I almost fancied I saw the silhouette of a man’s figure 
against the grayness. It moved, and I was sure that my 
eyes were not deceived ; it disappeared, and almost imme- 
diataly afterward I heard a fall upon the terrace below. 
The man had dropped down a distance of fifteen feet from 
the window — a drop of not more than six feet for an ordi- 
nary man hanging from the ledge. 

The feeling of relief, combined with exhaustion caused 
by my frantic efforts, was too much for me. I was giddy 
and sick, my eyes closed, the sweat stood cold upon my 
face, every muscle gave way and quivered, only the bonds 
upon my body kept me from falling. 

“ Y’ain’t hurt, are you, dear ? ” were the first words I 
heard. It was Lola’s voice, very gentle and tremulous. 

“No; yon have saved me,” said I. 

She gave a little moan of delight, and her hands, which 
had been busily tugging at the knots, stopped in their 
work. 

She threw her arms about my neck, and, pressing her 
face against my breast, sobbed. 


74 


THE GEE AT UESPER. 


CHAPTER XII. 

Peace’s door was unlocked. He to all appearance was 
sound asleep with his face to the wall. I shook him, and 
as he turned over I said : 

“ Get up ; the Hesper is lost.” 

“ Lost ! as how ? ” he asked, sitting up. 

“ Stolen — taken from me.” 

“ Where’s Israel ? ” 

I told him of Van Hoeck’s terrible presentiment, and 
the circumstances under which he had left the house. 

“ We will find him, pardner,” said the Judge, in his 
slow, sententious manner, which was queerly at variance 
with his speed in hurrying into his clothes. “ We will 
find him, and see if his presentiments will go so far as fur 
to explain what’s become of the diamond. Let up what 
has happened, pardner. Reel it off. I am all awake.” 

I narrated briefly the events of the night while he com- 
pleted dressing. Lola, standing by the window, listened 
in silence. There was just enough light to reveal the 
mischievous exultation that sparkled in her eyes. 

“ Here’s a Vigilance Committee job, if ever there was 
one,” said the Judge, hastily lacing his boot. “ I ain’t 
lighted on anything so much like Calif or ney since the 
good old days. How, sir, if you air ready, we’ll hunt up 
Israel, the prophet. He’s got to tell us sum thin’ more 
about this than we know on.” 

It was striking five when we quitted the house. The 
Judge left me to look about the garden and its vicinity 
for Van Hoeck ; he himself struck out at once for the 
wood, taking Lola with him. The girl would have stayed 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


75 


with me, but her father had her hand in his, and there 
was no getting away from that grip. 

After exploring the garden, I took the path that led to 
the lodge, as being one that Yan Hoeck frequently walked 
in when alone. The lodge-keeper was not up, but, pass- 
ing through the open wicket into the road, I came upon a 
laborer, trudging along to his work with a pick upon his 
shoulder, and a tin flask in his hand. 

It then was half past five, or perhaps a little later. 

“ Have you passed a blind gentleman on the road ? ” I 
asked. 

“ I ain’t passed ’im,” he answered ; “ but as 1 come by 
the cross-roads I see some ’un, as looked gen’leman-like, 
kind ’er fumbling his way along the road down by Har- 
ley bottom.” 

I knew the cross-roads ; they were nearly two miles 
distant. It was incomprehensible to me how Yan Hoeck 
had strayed so far from the abbey ; but the laborer’s de- 
scription left little room for doubt that it was Y an Hoeck 
he had seen, and I started at once in the direction indi- 
cated. 

I could not see Y an Hoeck from the cross-roads, but on 
turning the angle of the lane at the foot of the hill, I per- 
ceived him feeling the way with painful slowness, and on 
the side of the hedge-row, a hundred yards in advance. 
Hearing my step, he turned, and recognizing it, came to 
meet me. He seemed to forget the danger of making a 
false step, and advanced with eager quickness — his whole 
body partaking the expression of anxiety imprinted on his 
features. 

“ Is it you, Thorne? ” he called. 

“ Yes,” I replied. 

“ What has happened ? ” 


76 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


I waited until I got up to him, then putting my hand 
on his shoulder, I said : 

“ I have bad news for you, Van Hoeck.” 

He trembled violently under my hand, and opened his 
lips to speak, but no sound came ; his condition was piti- 
able, and to keep him no longer in suspense, I said : 

“ I have lost it. It has been taken from me.” 

“ Who has taken it?” he asked, in a thick, husky voice. 

“ I cannot say. I could not see the man who robbed 
me.” 

He was silent for a time, and then his feelings found 
expression, at first in execration then in incoherent sen- 
tences, broken up with words of Dutch where the English 
tongue failed to give sufficient force to his anger and 
mortification. He assailed me with every kind of invec- 
tive, accused me of cowardice, of complicity in robbing 
him, of I know not what baseness and heartlessness — in- 
deed, it seemed as though the blow had deprived him of 
reason for a moment. At length, when his passion was 
somewhat exhausted, he said : 

“ And what is your defence ? ” 

I took his arm, and as I led him up the hill toward the 
cross-roads, I went over the story once more. When I 
was telling him how Lola had come to my rescue, he 
stopped me. 

“ That is a lie ! ” he said ; “ for she has been with me.” 

“ Impossible ! ” I exclaimed. 

“ Impossible, according to your story, but it is the truth 
for all that. I got off the path, and could not find my 
way back. She led me to a road — God knows where ! — 
and left me.” 

“ When 1 ” 

“ How can I tell ? The night has been an age.” 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


77 


“ Granting she led you for an hour — and you would 
scarcely suffer her to lead } 7 ou longer — that would allow 
her to return to the abbey, and come to my rescue at the 
time I speak of.” 

“ Have it as you will ; it makes no difference now. She 
got me out of the way, and that was her object in being 
there. Go on.” 

I came to the end of my narrative, and then suggested 
that the theft might be traced to one of the servants. 

“ Anything to shield Brace,” he said, bitterly ; and 
then, stamping his foot, he added, “ You know he took 
it!” 

It was useless reasoning with him in his present condi- 
tion. 

“ You stand convicted by your own statement,” he con- 
tinued ; “ what ordinary thief would be fool enough, hav- 
ing obtained the diamond, to wait there, risking discovery 
and jeopardize his own life — for the sake of butchering 
you ? If Brace was the thief, such a thing is possible ; 
for he must kill both you and me to profit by the posses- 
sion of the diamond. Where is he now ? ” 

“ With Lola, in the woods looking for you.” 

“ What ? already ! ” he exclaimed, in alarm. “ He is 
losing no time. Where are the woods ? ” 

“We are in them now,” I replied, for we had passed 
the cross-roads. 

He stopped short. Shaking off my hand, he muttered, 
in a tone of dread : 

“ Are you three hunting together ?” 

“ Be reasonable, Yan Hoeck,” I said. 

“ I am,” he replied ; “ leave me here.” 

I made no reply ; and we stood there in the middle of 
the road, he quaking with fear and turning his head from 


78 


THE GREAT EESPER. 


side to side to catch the sound that might confirm his 
fears. He looked like a hunted beast, that knows not 
which way to escape the hounds. 

“ What’s that ? ” he asked, under his breath quickly. 
“ There’s someone on the road. It’s his step. If you 
have any mercy, save me from him.” 

While I was turning to look up the road, to see if his 
fears were justified, he groped about until he caught hold 
of my arm. 

I had heard no sound, but his finer sense was not at 
fault. On the brow of the hill — which we were now T de- 
scending — stood the gaunt figure of Brace. The light of 
the rising sun shone upon him, but we stood in the shadow 
of the wood, where the mist still hung over the sodden earth. 

“I do not hear him ; where is he now?” Van Hoeck 
whispered. 

“ He is standing on the hill, a couple of hundred yards 
behind us. He does not see us.” 

“ If we could but get to the abbey ! Forget what I 
said, Thorne. Have pity on me,” he murmured. 

“ What do you want me to do ? ” 

“ Lead me back to the abbey. If I escape from that 
man now, I may protect myself after.” 

I saw no'possible reason for refusing compliance with 
this request, and, taking his arm, I led him along that 
side of the road wliere the shade was deeper. But, before 
we had gone a dozen yards, a shrill whoop rang through 
the echoing woods to our right, and Van Hoeck again 
stopped. I looked in vain over the brake for Lola, whose 
cry I recognized ; but, glancing up the road, I perceived 
that the Judge had heard the signal, and was coming after 
us. At the same moment Van Hoeck, starting forward, 
cried : 


THE GEE AT HESPER. 


79 


“ Quick, quick — he sees us — he is coming down upon 
us ! ” and then, after another dozen yards, “ do you want 
him to overtake us that you stick to this cursed road ? ” 

“ I am looking for a path ; we cannot push through the 
brake,” I replied. 

Glancing over my shoulder, 1 saw the Judge, his shoul- 
ders bent forward, his arms swinging from side to side, 
bearing down upon us with long strides, and rapidly di- 
minishing the distance between us. 

“ lie is gaining upon us. How far are we from the 
abbey? ” asked Yan Hoeck. 

“ Nearly two miles ; we will run for it, if you like.” 

We ran for some distance. Again looking back, I saw 
the Judge still plodding on, with the same rhythmic swing 
of his long arms. Running had given us no sensible ad- 
vantage; Yan Hoeck’s ear told him this. Drops of 
moisture stood on his livid face, the result of terror rather 
than exertion. 

“ There is no one in sight — no one we can call to for 
help % ” he asked. 

“ No one. I see a footpath through the wood, if you 
think that will be safer.” 

“ Yes, yes — anything is better than this open road.” 

We took the path I had caught sight of. It was a good 
sound bridle- way, covered with short turf ; we ran along 
noiselessly. The angle we made shut off the view from 
the road. Brace could not cut off the corner without get- 
ting entangled in the undergrowth of briers interwoven 
with the tall brake. 

He must follow in our steps to overtake us. The danger 
lay in the straightness of the path, which kept the view 
open from the road. Our escape depended upon our find- 
ing a by-path that might deceive him as to the course 


80 


THE GREAT HESTER. 


we had taken. I explained this to Yan Hoeck as we 
ran on. 

“ It is time we found one now if we are to escape,” he 
answered. 

The next step brought us to a footpath that cut the 
bridle-wav at right angles. 

Looking down the green alley toward the road, as we 
turned off from it, I could see nothing of the Judge. I 
thought we had beaten him. 

But we advanced now with great difficulty. There was 
room only for one in the path, yet I had to keep hold of 
Van Hoeck’s hand and guide him, for the brake met before 
us ; the trailing brambles that crossed the path caught his 
feet ; at every step he stumbled. It was hopeless to con- 
tinue. Already I fancied I caught a glimpse through the 
trees of the Judge swinging along the bridle- way. 

“ Your only chance is to get among the brake, and 
throw yourself down while I go on,” I said. “ I can go 
quicker alone, and coining behind, he may imagine that 
you are still before me.” 

“ Show me where to go.” 

I opened a way through the brake, led him behind a 
thicket, and bade him lie down. As he carried out this in- 
struction, I got back into the footpath, and was then en- 
abled to trot along at a brisk pace. 

It was only just in time, for looking back a couple of 
minutes later, I perceived the Judge ploughing his way 
through brake and bramble, which came well up to the 
level of his breast, with as little difficulty as though it had 
been meadow-grass, and with the same steady swing of his 
bent shoulders. He had caught sight of me from the 
bridle-way, and struck out at once into the thick of the 
undergrowth. 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


81 


I did not in the slightest degree participate in Yan 
Hoeck’s suspicions and fears, and having, as I hoped, suc- 
ceeded in diverting from him the object of his dread, I was 
indifferent as to whether the Judge overtook me or not. 
Had I been in the humor to enjoy a joke, I think 1 should 
have enjoyed giving him a long chase for nothing ; but 
circumstances were too grave for that. I pursued the path 
until it dipped down into a hollow, and there finding a 
fallen tree across the path, I sat down and waited for the 
Judge to come up. In a few minutes he stood before me 
with his arms folded on his chest, his feet planted apart, 
and a particularly stern look on his gaunt, weather-beaten 
face. 

“ He has given me the slip ; has he given it to you like- 
wise ? ” he asked. 

“ Ho,” 1 replied ; “ I gave it to him. I helped him to 
escape.” 

“ Stand up, Gentleman Thorne, and let us look each 
other in the face,” he said. 

I stood up. He held out his hand and I gave him mine. 

“Now, standin’ here hand in hand and face to face, 
say, air we the noblest works of natur’ or air we not ? ” 

I could not go so far as to admit that his appearance 
realized my highest ideal of nobility, but I understood his 
allusion, and replied : 

“ I believe you are an honest man, if that is what you 
mean, Brace.” 

“ It is ; and that is my opinion of you likewise. Let us 
sit down and hold a committee. How, pardner, will you 
tell me why you let Israel git ? ” 

“ Because the poor wretch is half distracted with the 
loss of the diamond and his fear of you.” 

“ Why do he fear me?” 

6 


82 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


“ He believes that yon took the diamond, and intend to 
have his life, in order to get the reversionary share, or 
something of that kind. And now, tell me why you pur- 
sued him when you saw lie wished to avoid you ? ” 

“ Because he did so wish for one thing,” and, he added, 
with emphasis, “ because he’s got to speak. Israel’s got 
to speak,” he repeated, with still greater decision. “ A 
man what has presentiments as a thing is going to be 
took so accurate as hisn, must nat’rally have presenti- 
ments what’s gone of it when it’s took.” 

“ And suppose he cannot tell you ? ” 

“Well, then, he’s got to try till he do. As a jedge, 
I’ve had to try a pretty considerable number of bad lots, 
but a more durned onprepossessing lot than Israel I never 
yet sentenced to a well aimed gallus. End mark this, 
pardner: ef Israel was charged with this crime, and it 
was my duty to direc’ the jury as to the verdic’ they 
should well and truly find, I should direc’ them to bring 
him in guilty, or I’d lock ’em up till they did.” 

“You are as unreasonable in your suspicions as Van 
Hoeck is in his, but you have not his excuse — you are not 
under the influence of fear.” 

“ Because I hev nothing to be afeer’d on, Gentleman 
Thorne.” 

“ Tell me how on earth it is possible for a man in Van 
Iloeck’s condition — a man absolutely helpless, as we 
know him to be — to accomplish a feat of this kind ? ” 

“ I don’t say he did it, pardner — I don’t say he took the 
Great Hesper ; on the other hand, I don’t say he didn’t. 
But I am free to maintain that he knows all about it. If 
you ask me how he knows it, I’d tell you as I don’t 
know. There’s a many things we don’t know, but that’s 
no reason why we shouldn’t try fur to find out. We 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


83 


ain’t so everlasting clever that there’s nothin’ more to 
be larnt out of this almighty universe, take my word for 
it. And though we hev drawed a pretty good lot of 
truth out of the well, we ain’t yet come to the last bucket- 
ful — not by a long way. One of the things we hev got 
to larn concerns Israel’s presentiments, and,” he added, 
emphatically, “ I’m going to larn it.” 

“We must get back to the house. The police must be 
sent for.” 

“ I don’t see what harm they can do, and it’s the reg’lar 
thing, and so they ought to be called in,” lie said, rising 
from the trunk on which we had been holding this dis- 
cussion. “ / am going for Israel. So long ! ” 

I hesitated to separate from the Judge. 

“ You must promise me, Brace, not to commit violence 
on Van Hoeck.” 

u If you mean by violence taking of his life away, I will 
give you my word not to be violent with him. There’s 
my hand on it.” 

On this understanding we shook hands and parted. He 
plunged again into the wood ; I returned to the abbey. 
That was between seven and eight o’clock. 

At two o’clock I went once more into the wood. Lola 
was wanted. 

The police-officer from Southampton, on hearing my 
story, declared at once that the theft had been committed 
by a servant, and that Lola must be found at once, to 
know if she had seen the thief as he escaped by the win- 
dow, and could identify him. 

To find Lola, however, was not my sole object. 

The protracted absence of Brace and Van Iloeck ex- 
cited my misgivings, and, despite the J udge’s promise, I 


84 


THE GREAT HESTER. 


already reproached myself with having abandoned my 
blind partner. The Judge's notions of justice were pecu- 
liar, and based upon the rough usage of California miners 
in the days when they made and executed their own laws. 
I believed him capable of applying torture, only stopping 
short of actual murder, to wring from Van Hoeck the 
secret which he believed him to hold with respect to the 
lost diamond. 

I retraced my steps to the spot where I had helped to 
conceal Van Hoeck. The broken brake marked a distinct 
trail, and in a pit less than a hundred yards from that 
point the undergrowth was beaten down, as if a struggle 
had taken place. 

Was it not possible that Brace had gone further than he 
intended, and killed Van Hoeck ? Had he concealed the 
body, and lied with his daughter to escape the conse- 
quences of his act ? 

Asking myself these questions, I followed a track from 
the pit that brought me into the bridle- way. Looking 
for further traces of a passage through the brake, I made 
my way down toward the road. 

Again I perceived broken brake, and following the line, 
I threaded my way between the trees upon the slope of 
the hill until I emerged from the wood upon the high 
bank that edged the abbey road at that part. It wa^ as 
nearly as possible the point where Van Hoeck had stopped 
me in the morning upon hearing Brace in our rear. 
Looking up the road, I saw the finger-post at the cross- 
roads ; looking down, I saw that which took my breath 
away with amazement — Brace was trudging along the 
road.toward the abbey, with Van Hoeck holding his arm on 
one side, and Lola his hand upon the other — an incompre- 
hensible picture of unity, friendly assistance, and reliance. 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


85 


It was true that without assistance Yan Iloeck could 
not have found his w r ay along the road, and very possible 
that, without the restraint of her father’s hand, Lola 
would not have walked by his side ; but all doubt as to 
the existence of a friendly understanding between the 
two men was dispelled from my mind by what followed. 

Arrived opposite the bridle-path leading up into the 
wood they stopped, and consultation ensued between the 
two men. I could not hear their voices at that distance, 
but I saw by their gesticulations that they were discuss- 
ing some point ; it ended by Brace’s going to the side of 
the road, and craning his neck to see if anyone were in 
sight. I crouched down beside the thicket, which partly 
concealed me. 

When I cautiously raised my head and looked again, 
Brace, still standing opposite the bridle way, was drawing 
his arm 'out of the sandy bank that there skirted the road. 

I ducked my head as once more he peered to the right 
and left. They were gone, all three, when I looked again. 

When I thought it safe to venture, I went to the spot 
where Brace had stood. There was a rabbit-hole in the 
sandy cutting, partly hidden by the trailing growth from 
the overhanging edge. I took off my coat, turned back 
my sleeve, thrust in my arm, and drew out — the leather 
case in which the diamond had been taken from my wrist ! 

It was empty. 

I again thrust my arm in and explored the hole, think- 
ing — though it was little likely — that the diamond had 
slipped out of the case or been put in separately. It was 
a kind of cul-de-sac — the earth had fallen in from above 
and blocked the passage at less than the length of my arm 
from the entrance; but I did not give up the search until I 
was absolutely certain that the Great Ilesper was not 


86 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


there. It was not probable they would place the diamond 
in such an open place ; the leather case was different. It 
was unsafe to keep that, but it was of little consequence 
where they abandoned it. But why had they taken the 
diamond from the case, and what had they done with it? 

A clew to this mystery also I discovered before long. 

When I got back to the abbey, Brace, V an Hoeck and 
Lola were in the library with the police-officer, Sir Ed- 
mund, Mr. Wray — his lawyer — and a couple of friends, 
j nstices of the peace, who had been brought by the rumors 
which were already widely spread. 

Lola was still under examination. She was stubbornly 
silent. It was with the greatest difficulty that any re- 
sponse to the questions put could be drawn from her. But 
she admitted seeing the man drop from the oriel ; and, 
asked if it was one of the servants, she replied firmly, 
“No.” But more than this could not be got out of her 
on this point. 

To the inquiry how she had discovered the means of get- 
ting from the bay into the oriel, for it was by that way she 
had come to my assistance, she replied that she “ had seen it 
done before,” but she would not say whom she had seen. 

The police-officer asked me to go into the adjoining din- 
ing-room with him. 

“ May I ask,” he said, “ if you have any reason to sus- 
pect that you have been robbed by your friends — your 
partners in the diamond ? because they profess to have 
been in the woods all the morning, whereas I have good 
cause to believe that they have been in the town of South- 
ampton part of the time.” 

“ Are you sure of that ? ” 

“ I will take my oath that I saw the little savage in the 
red petticoat in the High Street as I started to come here.” 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


87 


CHAPTER XIII. 

“ I ad vise yon, sir,” said the officer, “ to take the ad- 
vice of Sir Edmund’s solicitor, Mr. Wray.” 

I agreed, and he called in the lawyer. I told him, with- 
out reserve, all that had happened, showing him the 
leather case I had taken from the hole where Brace had 
placed it. 

“A couple of cunning scoundrels!” he exclaimed; 
“ their pretended suspicion of each other was, of course, 
intended to blind you to their complicity, while each, by 
implicating the other, diverted suspicion from himself.” 

“ I was never in my life so completely deceived,” I said. 
“ Brace seemed to me the embodiment of rough honesty. 
I liked the man, and it was a painful shock to me when I 
found him unfaithful and a thief.” 

“ He is worse than that, Mr. Thorne ; he is a murderer 
at heart ; for there can be no doubt it was he who at- 
tempted your life ; it was a sheer impossibility for the 
other man to do it. We have heard the story of the rob- 
bery from Sir Edmund. The intelligence that planned 
the attack was doubtless Yan IToeck’s. He looks like a 
man of subtle intellect. I do not see what other part he 
could have played in this affair.” 

“ Sir Edmund told me, sir,” said the officer, “ that on 
your return from the left wing, you heard snoring in 
Brace’s room.” 

“ I certainly did.” 

6i That could very w T ell have been Yan Hoeck, who had 
taken Brace’s place while he slipped off into your room — 
another proof that the two were acting together.” 


88 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


“ Precisely/’ said Mr. Wray ; and then, with an air of 
business — “ Well, now, what is to be done? that is the 
first question. The evidence is insufficient to charge 
either of the men even with being concerned in the rob- 
bery. The leather case proves nothing. They might de- 
clare they found it empt} 7 , and have concealed it through 
fear of accusation, or they might all three swear your state- 
ment to be false, and absolutely accuse you of being your- 
self the thief. And until we can substantiate the charge 
by positive proof, we must be careful to conceal our sus- 
picions from them. If they think they are likely to be 
brought to justice, they will quit the country by the first 
steamer that leaves Southampton — and we cannot stop 
them. The thing that must be done at once is to search 
for the diamond. That is your affair,” he said, address- 
ing the officer; “ undoubtedly they have placed it some- 
where in Southampton, in readiness to take if flight be- 
comes necessary.” 

“ I’ll have all the kens searched before the morning.” 

“ That is part of your business, of course. At the same 
time, I would suggest that it is of far more importance to 
watch the men themselves. Yan Iloeck would not trust 
the diamond to the keeping of ordinary thieves’ receivers : 
it would be safer merely laid under a plant in the gardens 
down by the dock. You may be sure he has the ingenuity 
to suggest a safe place for its keeping.” 

“ I’ll have some plain-clothes men on the first thing to- 
morrow morning, and I’d better go and telegraph to Scot- 
land Yard at once.” 

“As soon as possible. But, not to alarm the men, you 
had better make a pretence of continuing your investiga- 
tions, and avail yourself of some plausible pretext for re- 
turning to Southampton. Everything at this moment de- 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


89 


pends upon keeping Van Iioeck and Brace in ignorance 
of our suspicion. And with that view,” lie added, turning 
to me, “ I counsel you, Mr. Thorne, to conceal your own 
feelings. Not one of these three ought to see any change 
in your demeanor toward them.” 

This was sound advice, and I recognized the importance 
of conforming with it ; but I am the worst actor in the 
world where my feelings are concerned, and my very soul 
revolted against the men who had plotted together to take 
my life from the mere insensate greed of gain. I felt 
more bitterly toward Brace than toward his accomplice, 
not because I thought Van Iioeck less guilty, but because 
I had felt more kindly toward the Judge, to whom I 
seemed linked by the brotherhood of labor. 

I kept out of his way when we returned to the library, 
and avoided looking at him, lest he should perceive that I 
was no longer liis friend. But 1 knew he had his keen 
'byes upon me, and was reading the signs of my newly 
bom aversion, and this made my acting worse. 

When the officer had completed his investigation, he 
said sagaciously, as he closed his note-book : 

“ I have sufficient information for my present purpose. 
I may not be able to discover the perpetrators of this out- 
rage and robbery immediately, but I think I shall be in a 
position to tell you something about the lost diamond 
within twenty-four hours.” 

Sir Edmund accompanied him to the door. When he 
returned and took the seat he had occupied at the head of 
the long table, Brace rose, and placing himself at the op- 
posite end, inclined his head first to the baronet, then to 
the right and to the left. 

“ Squire and gen’lemen of this committee,” he said, “ I 
don’t want to speak disrespec’ful of the police, but the in- 


90 


T1IE ORE AT KEEPER. 


telligent officer who has just left us, as if he’d got hold of 
the tail end of a rocket, and meant follerin’ it right up, 
and holdin’ tight on till it bust, ain’t goin’ to do any good 
for hisself or anyone else in this business. The big dia- 
mond’s lost, end he ain’t goin’ to find it in twenty-four 
hours, nor in twenty-four years. Ef it was a haystack, I 
don’t say but what, with the help of Providence — and a 
good lot of it — he might be up to the job lie’s ondertook. 
But it ain’t a haystack. End ef he was to grind up the 
whole of this country, end every blessed thing upon it 
small, huddled it in a clean flume, and sifted the tailins 
careful, he wouldn’t find it. End these bein’ my views, it 
stands to reason that I ain’t goin’ to hang about here look- 
in’ at the place where I’ve come to grief, like an old fe- 
male what’s slipped off the sidewalk on a bit of orange-peel. 
With your permission, squire, I’m goin’ away right off.” 

“ I cannot stop you, Brace, even if I wished to,” replied 
Sir Edmund, who, be it observed, knew nothing of the 
suspicion against the Judge. “ I am inclined to think that 
you will be happier in seeking a new fortune than in lin- 
gering about with the faint hope of recovering the old. 
If the diamond is found you will hear of it wherever you 
may be. Are you going to look for another diamond ? ” 

“No, squire; I’m going to find that , please God,” 
Brace replied ; then, after a moment’s pause, he said, 
“ There’s a matter of business to finish up before I go, sir: 
all the money I have in my pocket belongs to you.’’ 

“ It is a loan ; keep it, Brace — keep it until you are in 
a position to pay me ; and I hope, for your sake, that time 
may not be far hence.” 

“ You’re grit, squire — real grit ! I won’t refuse your 
kindness. I shall need a bit to start with. But I’ll ask 
you, sir, to hold this till I claim it.” 


THE GREAT HESTER. 


91 


lie went round to Sir Edmund. 

“ What is it, Brace \ ” asked the Baronet, taking the 
paper Brace drew from his pocket. He found it was the 
Judge’s copy of agreement. u Oh, I do not need this, my 
good fellow,” he protested ; “ I have your I O U, and that 
is as good now as ever it was.” 

“ If you won’t keep it for your own security, squire, I’ll 
ask you to keep it for my own. It’s a kinder ce’tif’cate, 
and if anyone lies got anythin’ to say agen me when I’m 
not here to defend myself, I’ll ask you to let that up. 
Good-by, squire.” 

He held out his hand, and said, as Sir Edmund shook it 
cordially— “ Thank you, sir, thank you ! You are grit! ” 

He strode down the room, brushing past Yan Hoeck, 
who sat immovable and silent as though he were carved in 
stone, and came to where I was standing. My face must 
have told him that my heart was hardened. But he 
stretched out his hand and said hoarsely : 

“ Say good-by to us, pardner.” 

I folded my arms and shook my head. He dropped his 
hand by his side. 

“Prehaps you’re right,” he said, remorsefully, “pre- 
haps you’re not. Time will show that I’ve got a clean 
conscience, if Heaven is just.” He paused, then in a still 
lower tone, and with an accent of reproach, he added, 
“ Say yer hope so, pardner, say yer hope so.” 

“ I hope so,” I said. 

He shook his head ruefully. 

“ ’Tain’t yer old voice, Gentleman Thorne — there’s no 
heart in it. We’ve roughed it together, and we’ve shared 
our ’bacca out there, end ” — his chin twitched convulsive- 
ly, and turning away he muttered, “ it takes all the pluck 
outer me to part like this.” 


92 


THE GREAT I1ESPER, 


Lola was standing in a corner of the room by the door, 
with her eyes fixed upon me. As Brace was about to pass 
through on his way out he caught up her wrist savagely in 
his hand. As savagely she tore it away, and in her turn 
came and stood before me. 

“ I’m a-goin’,” she said. 

“ And a good riddance,” I thought, exasperated by the 
belief that she knew where the diamond was, and could re- 
veal the whole mystery if she chose. 

“ You ain’t goin’ to let me go like him, are yer ? ” she 
asked ; “ you ain’t goin’ to let me go without sayin’ good- 
by?” 

There was deep pathos in her voice. The friendless lit- 
tle savage loved me. She had saved my life. My heart 
smote me for forgetting that. I gave her my two hands ; 
she drew them round her slight body, and then flinging her 
arms about my neck she whispered with tender impulsive- 
ness: 

“ Shall I be good ? Shall I tell you where it is ? ” 

But just at that moment her fine ear caught the rustle 
of a woman’s dress, and catching sight of Edith, who was 
entering from the dining-room, she started back. 

Scowling over her shoulder at Edith, her eyes aflame 
with hate, she said, in a voice from which all tenderness 
had gone : 

“For her sake? No! ’’and without looking again at 
me she went from the room and joined her father. 


THE GREAT HEJSPER. 


93 


CHAPTER XIV. 

My engagement with Edith was broken oft that evening. 

I had not the slightest hope of recovering the lost dia- 
mond, and when I told Sir Edmund my reasons for de- 
spairing, he did not attempt to conceal his satisfaction 
with regard to my determination. 

“ A man should never be dependent on his wife. It 
must necessarily be a source of humiliation to him ; and 
no man suffers humiliation without in time losing his own 
self-respect. That will never, I hope, be your loss, Ber- 
nard. Poor girl, it will be a great grief to her ; for though 
she has known you but a little while, she has found in you 
a great deal to admire and love, and her affection is so 
tenacious that I doubt if she will ever cease to love you.” 
He sighed, and for some moments sat in thoughtful silence ; 
then he said, “ We must not break her heart, my dear fel- 
low — -we must leave her some hope, as it is necessary that 
for some time you should be separated, it is right that you 
should both be free to form other engagements, at the 
sa*ne time there may be a tacit understanding that, should 
you succeed in making a position for yourself in a reason- 
able space of time, and then are both still warmly disposed 
toward each other, the engagement shall be renewed. 

“ There is no necessity for } T our having a large fortune, 
but it is essential, as I think, and as you happily think 
also, that you should be able to provide yourself with the 
necessities of life. I promise that Edith shall bring with 
her the luxuries.” 

lie then offered to use his influence in procuring me a 
secretaryship : but as I had never been accustomed to 
sedentary occupation, and such an appointment could 


94 


THE GREAT HESPER . 


never satisfy my more ambitious hopes, lie generously 
placed his purse at my disposal, to use as I might find oc- 
casion. 

I have purposely abstained from dwelling upon my love 
affairs, for if I entered into them at all, my feelings would 
lead me to dilate upon the delights of my brief wooing, to 
the exclusion of the graver matters which form the sub- 
ject of this book. For the same reason I shall pass over 
the bitter grief of our parting. I will only say that Edith’s 
last words awakened courage in my sinking heart. 

I could form no satisfactory theory with regard to the 
Great Hesper robbery, but I was disposed to regard Yan 
Hoeck as the least culpable agent concerned in it. 

It was impossible to tell how the robbery affected this 
mysterious man. As I have said, during the investigation 
he sat perfectly motionless and perfectly silent. His face 
wore the inscrutable expression of a death-mask. 

Sir Edmund had no sympathy with him after learning 
from me the particulars relating to the adventures of the 
morning. 

When we entered the library from the dining-room, 
where our interview had taken place, we found Y#n 
Iloeck sitting where we had left him. 

“ I have ordered the carriage to be at the door in half 
an hour, Mr. Yan Hoeck,” said the baronet. “ Be good 
enough to make your arrangements for departure by that 
time.” 

V an Hoeck inclined his head. 

“ I shall be glad if you will redeem your I O U at an 
early date,” the baronet added, sternly. 

Yan Hoeck put his hand in his pocket, drew out a 
purse, and extended it. I took it, seeing the baronet’s 
repugnance, and placed it on the table. 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


95 


I accompanied Yan Hoeck to Southampton. Neither 
of us spoke on the way — indeed, I had not heard a word 
pass his lips since we parted in the early morning. 

I took a room for him at an hotel, and when the ser- 
vant who led us to it was gone, I said : 

“ I am going to leave you, Yan Hoeck.” 

A gesture of indifference was his only reply. 

“ You have nothing to say — no explanation to offerl ” I 
asked. 

“ What do you mean ? — speak plainly,” he sai<J. 

“ I saw you discussing with Brace what should be done 
with the case that held the diamond before he secreted 
it.” 

“ If you know that we were discussing that, you know 
all. It is useless to make an explanation that you would 
not believe. 1 have nothing to say.” 

He groped his way to a chair and threw himself into it. 

I put a packet of notes on the table, and told him that 
if he had need of further help he might write to me, ad- 
dressing his letter to the care of Sir Edmund. Then I 
left him. 

I had a vague idea of purchasing a partnership in some 
business where I could find active employment, and with 
this view I took lodgings in London, and began to look 
about me. I had been engaged in this pursuit about a 
week when I received a letter from Sir Edmund. 

“ I enclose,” he wrote, “ a cutting from one of the 
weekly papers. Yine-growing, as it is here described, 
seems to be the very thing that should suit a man of 
your disposition and taste; it would suit me, if I were 
thirty years younger than I am. As it is, nothing would 
better please me than to see you a prosperous fruit farmer. 


96 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


“That. Edith might have something to look forward to, 
I have proposed that our next summer holiday trip should 
he to San Diego. She thinks we should find Californian 
hotels insupportable. Perhaps yon will be able to offer 
something more acceptable than hotel accommodation. In 
any case, my dear fellow, you can give me no more ac- 
ceptable testimony of your affection than in availing your- 
self ffeely and fully of my pecuniary assistance.” 

The cutting referred to vine-growing and fruit-culture 
in Southern California ; but before I read a single line in 
it I had made up my mind to be at San Diego to receive 
Edith and her father in the summer. 


CHAPTER XY. 

Fortune favored me ; before I had been twenty-four 
hours in San Diego, I learned that one of the best fruit 
farms in the State was to be sold. It lay in Elysium Val- 
ley, about twelve miles back of San Diego City, and was 
the property of Colonel Hinks. On hearing this, I hired 
a horse at once, and rode to the estate. The road ran be- 
tween irrigated plantations of lemons, citrons, oranges, and 
other fruits that perfumed the air ; the higher slopes were 
covered with vines. In the distance before me were the 
snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Hevada, and turning in 
m}^ saddle as I ascended the gentle rise on which the 
house stood, my eyes were dazzled with the beauty of San 
Diego Bay. 

The house was large and well-built in the Italian style 
— a style not unsuited to that unclouded sky, and the sur- 
rounding scenery. The view from the belvedere was in- 


THE GREAT HESTER . 


97 


describably beautiful, and indeed justified the high-sound- 
ing name given to the valley it overlooked. 

There were flowers everywhere about and around the 
house ; they festooned the terrace fronting the fagade ; 
they hung from the windows ; they edged the paths ; they 
even twined from bough to bough of the great cedar that 
lent shade to the lawn. 

“ This is a house worthy of Edith,” I thought. “ Oh, 
that it may be mine to offer her ! ” 

It would be time wasted to enter into my business trans- 
actions with Colonel Hinks. Suffice it to say that my ar- 
dent wish was realized, and that in less than a month from 
my arriving in San Diego I entered into possession of the 
beautiful property. Doubtless, it was a hazardous under- 
taking for one who knew nothing whatever of the business, 
but what hazard is too great for a man whose object is to 
win the woman he loves ? That the money I invested was 
not my own, did not lessen the risk I ran, but increased 
it ; for, unless I could show a reasonable probability of 
repaying Sir Edmund’s loan, I could not demand Edith’s 
hand. However, I had every reason to believe that Colo- 
nel Ilinks was a gentleman, and an honest and conscien- 
tious man of business ; added to this, I had confidence in 
my own perseverance, energy, and strength, and that 
buoyant feeling of hope with which nearly everyone who 
breathes the healthful air of this delightful continent 
seems to be inspired. 

Early in November I received a letter from Sir Ed- 
mund. Among other things he wrote : 

“ The robbery is still a mystery — to me it is a greater 
mystery than ever. Van Iloeck has taken lodgings in the 
village. I have met him twice in the woods, a wild, de- 
7 


98 


THE GREAT HESTER. 


plorable object, and, indeed, pitiable, if one may doubt 
liis complicity in the robbery. Once he was upon his 
hands and knees, groping among the ferns, as if he ex- 
pected to find there the lost diamond ; but he chooses the 
night for these expeditions — probably because he is then 
less open to observation. The keepers tell me that he 
passes the whole night, and every night, in this hopeless 
search. Why on earth should he do this, if he and Brace 
got possession of the diamond, as we suppose? ” 

In a postscript he added — “ Mr. F urnival, dating from 
Iiaxel’s Hotel, London, wrote asking me for your address. 
I replied that you were at San Diego, California.” 

The news with regard to Van Hoeck did not add greatly 
to the mystery in which this strange man was already in- 
volved; but the postscript was a new source of perplexity 
to me. I knew no one of the name of Furnival ; I could 
not recollect having spoken to anyone of Sir Edmund 
while I was in London. 

How then, could this Mr. Furnival have known where 
to apply for my address ? I expected a letter from him 
to clear up this matter, but no letter came. 

A few days later I received a letter addressed to me at 
Monken Abbey, and readdressed in Sir Edmund’s hand. 
Turning to the signature I found it was from Brace. It 
was dated October 15th, Peters ville, Nevada County. The 
Judge then was in California, within a day’s journey of 
me. I was not surprised at this, knowing his partiality for 
the State; but it was irreconcilable with the supposition 
that he and V an Hoeck had the diamond. He wrote thus : 

“ I rite these lines fur to show where I am lokated, and 
likewise that I have not slinked off like a thief in the night 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


99 


to hide my lights under a bushel. If things aint no for- 
arder than they was in the direction of clearin up what’s 
become of the Great Hesper, they aint anyways no back- 
arder. 

“It aint no use promisin without you are got it right 
inter yer to perforin, but I will allow that I aint goin to 
chuck up the cards before Ive made you shake my hand 
and acknowledge Ive played square. The Kid is frettin 
and things in genal is not lively with your pardner, 

u Jos. Bkace.” 

I did not reply to this letter. I heard again from Sir 
Edmund at the end of November. His letter was dated 
the 20th. He felicitated me heartily upon the purchase I 
had made, and added the warmest wishes for my success. 

He continued. 

“ Thank you for Brace’s letter. The tone of it would 
lead one to imagine not only that he knows where the dia- 
mond is, but has a strong belief in his power to recover it ! 
One cannot possibly believe that it was he who robbed 
and attempted to murder you. But whom are we to sus- 
pect, if not him \ If he were not guilty, why should he 
try to conceal the leather case which might lead to its re- 
covery ? There is a fascination in this subject which over- 
comes my wish to drop it. It is like the fifteen puzzle 
that drove half the world mad some years ago. 

“YanHoeck still wanders about the woods through the 
night. More than once he has been seen standing outside 
the room in which Edith and I pass the evening, listen- 
ing. 

“ His suspicions have perhaps fallen upon us. The 
poor wretch may have lost his reason. His appearance. 


100 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


when I caught sight of him the other day, justifies the 
suspicion. 

“ I have to confess to an indiscretion which may have 
no serious result, but which I regret all the same. Yes- 
terday I received a telegram from Furnival, dated HaxeiV 
Hotel. 

44 It ran thus : 

“‘We have important clew. Send address of Joseph 
Brace at once, or place where he is likely to be found.’ 


“ The 4 we 5 led me to suppose that he was an agent of 
the detectives employed in this case, and without further 
reflection I sent Brace’s address, having your letter under 
my hand. I became uneasy as soon as the messenger was 
out of sight, and sent Wilson over to Southampton with 
two telegrams, one for F urnival and the other for the head 
of the detective department, asking for further particu- 
lars. I have received no reply whatever from Furnival, 
and the detectives replied by letter that they employed no 
one named Furnival, and that all inquiries were made 
through the head office. 

44 Who on earth can this Furnival be, and what can be 
the object of his inquiries ? The mystery was sufficiently 
incomprehensible without this addition.” 

Incomprehensible indeed, and the more closely one ex- 
amined the mystery, the more inscrutable it appeared. 

44 1 enclose,” he wrote, in conclusion, 44 a letter which 
came to hand this morning.” 

It was a second letter from Brace. This is the 
copy : 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


101 


“Tibbals’s Golden State Hotel, 
“Sacramento City, Novembers. 

“ Gentleman Thorne, Sir : I dint expec you to an- 
swer ray letter, but the Kid have took it to heart raoren 
natral. I told you she was kinder frettin, and to please 
her I made believe I had sent the message she ast me to 
rite. Which gettin no anser to said message she sorter 
felt youd turned your back on her for ever. I dont think 
shes goin to make old bones. Seems to me like as if she 
meant knocking off early. Ses she dont feel like gatherin 
any more wild flowers. 

“ The doctor considers that sickness she got out Africa 
has settled into her, and she cant corff it off. 

“ The rains hes set in early up Petersville, and they 
aint no good for a poor little sick Kid. We come down 
here day fore yesterday. 

il Shes pinin, pardner, tliats whats the matter with her, 
witch is why I rite her message. 

u She says she wants to be good ; thems her words. I 
never knew her say such a thing, an I cant hardly expec 
you to believe it, knowin what she was, but if you could 
only see her as she is youd believe it. Shes that altered ; 
no tantrums, no opposisliun, no obstinacy — no nothin. 

“ Seein this, you may be moved, sir, bein kinder pitiful 
by natar, to rite her a few words, jest to say youve got 
her message, and hope shell stick to her promise. With 
a little bit of encouragement like that, 1 dont think shed 
go away without telling us what shes done with the Great 
Hesper. Yours respectfully, Jos Brace.” 

I started for Sacramento without a moment’s delay. 


102 


THE GREAT BESPER. 


CHAPTEK XVI. 

I was told at the Sacramento depot that the Golden 
State Hotel was on the third block up the grade. In 
ascending the hill, I caught sight of Brace and Lola walk- 
ing in advance a hundred yards or so, yet so changed that 
it took me some minutes to identify them. 

Swinging along at a good four miles an hour, and 
dragging the Kid along by the wrist, or letting her trot 
on behind, I should have recognized the Judge immedi- 
ately at a quarter of a mile off. But walking at an old 
man’s pace, with his daughter leaning on his arm, he was 
not easily recognizable. 

But in Lola the change was still greater. She was no 
longer a barefooted, ragged little savage, but a young 
lady with some pretension to elegance in her dress ; and 
thus altered, she looked a woman rather than a child. 

Her head was bent, she leaned for support on her 
father’s arm. She walked slowly, and with an air of 
fatigue ; and, remembering the buoyant elasticity of her 
gait, the rebellious independence of her spirit, I asked 
myself with doubt if this could indeed be Lola. 

I followed them into the hotel ; from the vestibule 1 
saw them enter a room upon the first floor. I ran up, 
and stopped at the open door. Lola had seated herself 
on a couch, her face rested on the pillow, her eyes were 
closed. 

It was the pretty little face I knew so well, but oh, so 
changed ! Her cheek was no longer round ; the russet 
bloom had gone from her complexion ; there was a pur- 
ple tint about her closed lids, and the vermilion of her 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


103 


lips was unnaturally bright. 1 was struck by the delicate 
beauty of her face, but it was a beauty that tilled one’s 
heart with sorrow, like the fading away of a divine 
melody. 

I entered the room noiselessly, and seated myself in a 
chair by her side. I heard Brace moving about in the ad- 
joining room. She was unconscious of my presence, and 
as I sat with my eyes dwelling upon her beautiful face, 
my thoughts wandered back to the old days at the Cape, 
when I left my work from time to time to see how “ the 
little 'un” was getting on, as she lay exhausted with sick- 
ness. The gleam of the white teeth between the parted 
lips, the curl of the long lashes that swept her cheek, the 
crisp little lock above her ear — these were all the same, 
yet with the un definable trait of womanhood, so different. 
The bud had opened — only to die ? I had asked myself 
before if she would live. It was doubtful then, but the 
hope was fainter now. 

She opened her eyes, and, seeing me, sprung up with a 
cry of joy, and threw her arms round my neck and kissed 
me, for she was, indeed, still a child at heart. 

“ Oh, it is true ! ” she cried, between her kisses ; “ I 
was asleep, and I saw you come to me, and — ” she 
stopped abruptly, and drawing back, said in wonder, as 
she looked in my face, “ Why, you are crying ! ” 

Hearing her voice, Brace came in from the next 
room. 

“Say, now, what did I tell you?” he exclaimed. 
“ The Kid’s took it into her silly little head as she 
wouldn’t see you no more, sir.” 

“ She will see a good deal of me, if I have my way,” I 
said, holding out my hand to Brace. 

His countenance changed ; he dragged his chin tuft 


104 


THE GREAT EESPER. 


thoughtfully for a minute, then turning to his daughter, 
he said : 

“ Lola, my gel, we must have it out now straight off. 
Here’s Gentleman Thorne holdin’ out his hand to me, and 
I ain’t no right to take it till you let on wliat’s come of 
the big diamond.” 

“ Not now — not now,” she said, beseechingly ; “ a little 
while — a week — no more.” 

“ No, my gel ; ’tain’t to be put off like it was a dose of 
physic. See here — see here. When we parted, Gentle- 
man Thorne refused to give me his hand — for why, he 
knew we wasn’t playin’ square; ” and, turning to me, he 
said, “ You knew we’d got the stone, didn’t you, sir?” 

“ 1 saw you hide the case,” I replied. 

“ Consequently you knew we’d got the thing among us 
somewheres. Come, my gel, think how Gentleman 
Thorne nussed you out there in the hot sun ; ’member how 
he stood by you and pulled you through. Don’t let the 
best friend you ever had think you ain’t got nothin’ but 
greaser blood in yer ; don’t let him think you ain’t got no 
kinder gratitude or ’fection in yer.” 

“ Oh, you shall not think that,” she cried, starting to 
her feet. “ I’ll take you there — not to-day, it is too far ; 
but to-morrow I’ll show you where it is, and you shall 
take it to tier, and never see me again.” 

“ I will take you with me if I go, Lola,” I said. 

She shook her head, and covered her face with her 
hands. 

“ No, no, you will never see me again,” she said, and 
then a violent tit of coughing attacked her, and she left 
the room, closing the door after her. 

Brace looked at me significantly, and in a low voice 
that faltered a little, said : 


TEE GREAT HESPER. 


105 


“ It ain’t nat’ral for her to give in like that; it ain’t 
like the Kid, not a bit. Her contrariness and obstinacy 
used to make me wild, but it didn’t make my heart ache 
like this.” 

Lola came back in a little while, weak and exhausted, 
but with a smile upon her poor face. She sat close to me 
slipping her hand under my arm, and resting her cheek 
against my shoulder. Her love was too innocent, or she 
was too ignorant of social usages, to know restraint. 

“ I don’t want to talk : it hurts me,” she said. “ I just 
want to sit here quiet,” and she closed her eyes, nestling 
still closer. 

“ You’ve come to a ruined and an onhallowed country, 
sir,” said the Judge; “ durned if I skercely knowed it 
again — nothing but machinery and Chinese — not a decent 
white placer in all Nevada — them yaller varmint ain’t left 
anythin’ worth lookin’ for, not in the or’nary way. It’s 
got to be looked for in onor’nary places, and fetched out 
in onor’nary ways, as I’ve said more’n once before to you; 
and my meanin’ is that I could do the same if I had the 
means, and if so be the Kid keeps her promise — as I do be- 
lieve she will.” Lola nodded, without taking her head 
from my shoulder, or opening her eyes, and a little sigh 
fluttered up from her heart. “ As I know she will — I’ll 
do it; not for the sake of the gold, ’cause that won’t be 
needed when we’ve got the diamond, but just to prove the 
prenceple of the thing. It’s down an almighty hole up 
the Sierra, nearly up to the snow-line, and I’ve been there 
prospectin’ it day after day, and studyin’ the thing out, 
an’ 1 didn’t leave it till the snow forced us to come down, 
an’ now the hole’s blocked up for months.” 

Suddenly raising her head, and turning to her father, 
with eager eyes, Lola exclaimed : 


106 


THE GREAT UESPER. 


“ Blocked !” 

“ Ah, blocked for full three months by the snow, and 
for another by the swelled fall ; it’ll be pretty well June 
afore I kin get down it.” 

Lola burst into a fit of hysterical laughter, and, clapping 
her hands with joy, cried : 

“ It is down there — the diamond ! You must wait — 
months — almost till June.” Then growing suddenly 
grave, she looked wistfully at me, as if to see if I were 
angry with her. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

Natuk ally they were astonished when they heard I had 
been in the State a couple of months. When I told them 
I had come there to seek my fortune, and was farming in 
the south, where I hoped they would come and stay with 
me during the winter, Brace said : 

“ Well, I hear there’s a livin’ to be made ranchin’, but 
it’s a plaguy long row, they do say. Howsoever, it won’t 
be none too long for me to hoe along of you, and so be 
you’re agreeable to havin’ our company, it ain’t likely I’ll 
hold off.” 

Lola’s eyes dilated with eager delight. I fancy her im- 
agination pictured a return of the Transvaal times, the 
happiest she had known, when rude necessity knit us to- 
gether in close companionship. I did not think it neces- 
sary to undeceive them then, and the next day I took them 
with me to San Diego. The sun was shining when we 
got there, and the air was soft and warm : it was like an 
early day of English summer. 


THE GREAT I1ESPER. 


107 


The effect on Lola was miraculous : she seemed inspired 
with new life. I had never seen her so animated and 

gay- 

Her countenance fell as we passed through the beauti- 
ful plantations and entered the richly furnished house. It 
was an unhappy disillusion for her. Brace, who never let 
anything in the world surprise him, stroked his chin re- 
flectively as he looked round him, and said : 

“ This is your lot, is it, Gentleman Thorne ? ” 

“ I shall be better able to call it mine when I have paid 
up the capital invested in it. As you know, I had no 
money of my own. I have borrowed heavily, and until the 
loan is paid ” 

I shrugged my shoulders. 

“ Until it’s paid,” said Brace, continuing my sentence. 
“ You’ve got to go to bed late, and get up airly, and be 
thankful lief you kin sleep sound in betwixt. 1 reckon 
it'll take you a pretty considerable long time afore you feel 
you don’t know what to do with yourself.” 

“ A long while ! ” 1 said, gravely. 

“ IIow long? ” asked Lola, quickly, under her breath. 

“ Oh, many, many years, perhaps,” I replied. 

She did not attempt to conceal her satisfaction. 

| 

I gave the girl a wiry little horse ; she sat it for the first 

time with the grace and mastery of a trained horsewoman. 

Every morning I rode round the plantation ; sometimes 
business took me to the city — she never failed to be by my 
side on these occasions. But when I had work to do, it 
was another thing. She hated work, and dreaded tran- 
quillity ; she found an escape from both in a wild gallop 
among the foot-hills. She became coquettish with regard 
to her appearance. When she could coax a dollar out of 


108 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


her father, she would gallop off to San Diego to buy some 
trifle for the adornment of her pretty little person. If by 
my manner she fancied I approved the new addition, she 
wore it till she could replace it with something else ; but if 
I failed to notice it, or she thought it was not to my taste, 
she would fling it away before it was a day old. She 
abandoned herself to the enjoyment of the new life that 
came to her, and for some time she seemed neither to re- 
member the past nor to think of the future. 

Under these conditions, all trace of illness disappeared, 
and with health returned something of her old mutinous 
independence ; paternal authority once more sunk into 
insignificance. 

Brace quickly found occupation, and after a time ren- 
dered me invaluable assistance in the management of the 
business. One day, as we were returning from the pack- 
ing-sheds, he said : 

“ I’ve looked round this consarn pretty careful, and I 
see, sir, that you’re goin’ to do a great big thing here. 
You’ve found out jest where the real grit o’ this country 
lays, and you’re goin’ to work it up into an almighty pile. 
That’s what you’re goin’ to do, and I’m everlastin’ glad of 
it, for more reasons than one. And one reason is this — I’m 
gettin’ more duberous every day whether we shall ever get 
the Great Ilesper. For, fustl} 7 , when the frost breaks up, 
the great hole where the gel hes hid the stone, may be 
swep out as clean as a gun-baril by the torrent of melted 
snow, or it may be blocked up for everlastin’ by the mast 
of rock that comes rollin’ down from the mountain sides 
every spring; and, secondly, the Kid may change her 
mind. She may back out of the promise she gave us when 
she was sick. Rec’lect her mother were a greaser, and 
consiquently it’s nat’ral to her to tell lies when they’ll 


THE GREAT HE8PER. 


109 


serve her purpose ; and bear in mind it would serve her 
purpose to make out the diamond ain’t no longer where 
she put it. Bear in mind also, sir, as she warn’t herself 
when she made the promise, and that she’s been gettin’ 
more herself since. Her obs’nacy and deviltry’s coinin’ 
back more and more every day, and she’s now almost the 
obs’nate, contrairy little cuss she was. Keep on bearin’ 
in mind that she stole the diamond purposely to separate 
you from Miss Lascelles, and to bring you down to a 
or’nary workin’man again. I see her game the day we 
lost the diamond ; I see it clearer ’an ever when we got up 
to Petersville — she wus that angry when I told her there 
was no good to be done minin’ in the or’nary way — so 
eager for me to write and tell you there was a going for 
the stuff down the big hole. Now, fortune to be made soon 
as I hit on the idea of what’s she to git by givin’ up the 
diamond — a little wuss than nothin’. Which is why I re- 
jice in the prospect of your making a big thing of this ere 
orange growin’. Still, sir, we ain’t goin’ to lose that dia- 
mond, if we can help it, and we’re got two things to do. 
We’re got to keep our eye on the snow, and get down the 
great hole afore the wust of the slush and rock comes 
tumblin’ down, and we’re got to make the Kid believe as 
things down here is so jolly flourishin’ as we don’t kere two 
straws whether we find the thing or not. You’ll leave that 
to me. I’ll pitch it in strong to her ! ” 

And he kept his word. Every day he exhausted his 
stock of adjectives in glorifying the estate and dilating 
upon the marvellous results to be obtained from fruit cult- 
ure, and occasionally he referred to the Great Hesperwith 
such contempt that one would have thought it was hardly 
worth stretching out one’s hand to take. 

This had the effect that Brace desired. She listened in 


110 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


moody silence, and after I liad turned the subject, she 
would sit with her chin in her hands, her elbows on her 
knees, and her great sad eyes fixed upon some distant ob- 
ject, wrapped in dreamy meditation. But Brace was not 
content with this. 

One day I overheard him speaking to Lola when they 
were alone. 

u I reckon we shall have to show off our good pints, my 
gel, before the squire and his daughter come here, or we 
shall look pretty mean by comparison, and Gentleman 
Thorne will sorter feel sick, seein’ us bangin’ around. 
He’ll say toliisself, nat’ral like, well, here’s this squire and 
his daughter, as I’ve never done nothin’ in partickler for, 
has set me up in a business as is goin’ to make me the most 
eternel all-fired millionaire that ever lived ; and, on the 
other hand, here’s this derned old Judge, as skercely earns 
his salt, and the Kid, as I’ve nussed and saved twice from 
dying right out, and all they’ve ever done for me is ter rob 
me of all I lied, and do their level best to clean me out and 
ruin me.” 

He might have continued, being of a persevering sort, 
but that Lola ran away to her room, slammed the door, 
and burst into a fit of crying, that could be heard where I 
sat on the terrace. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

I had written a few hurried lines from Sacramento, tell- 
ing Sir Edmund that Lola had taken the Great Hesper, 
and intended to restore it as soon as the snow had melted 
and allowed us to reach the cavern in which it was con- 
cealed. In answering this letter he wrote : 


THE 011EA1 IIESPER. , 


111 


" After reading your good news, Edith and I went for a 
stroll through the park, where we encountered poor Van 
Hoeck, whose woe-begone appearance appealed once more 
to Edith’s heart and mine also. ‘Why,’ she asked, 
‘ should we any longer treat him as a possible scoundrel, 
now that the Braces admit having taken the diamond?’ 
We turned back, overtook Van Hoeck, and told him what 
had happened. The poor wretch was overcome with emo- 
tion, not because of the possible recovery of the lost dia- 
mond (of which he entertains strong doubt), but in being 
once more treated as an honest man.” 

How did V an Hoeck deserve to be treated as an honest 
man ? That was the question. I will give here Brace’s 
account of what occurred in the woods, and as near as I 
can in his own words. 

“ When we parted company in the wood,” he said, “ I 
hunted around for Israel, as was my intention, you will re- 
member. I found him crawlin’ like a varmint of a reptile 
through the ferns. I fetched him into a convenient spot, 
and says I, ‘ Israel,’ I ses, ‘ you air goin’ to prophesy what 
has gone of the Great Ilesper. It’s not a hard job, if 
you give yer mind to it. Tain’t nothin’ near so hard as 
prophesying what’s goin’ to be.’ 

“ I had hold on him by the arm. All of a suddent, he 
flings himself round, grapples on to me, and ’fore I’m 
aware of anythin’, I’m on my back, and his two thumbs 
is inter my wind pipe. I never thought he’d got it inter 
him — such strength and agility — and I’ll allow he would 
have strangled me hef the Kid hadn’t come up in the nick 
and frightened him by singing out for you. I did not lose 
any time, and when I had shown I was as strong as him, 


112 


THE OllEAT UESPER. 


with a little bit to spare, I got him to prophesy. He wanted 
a plaguy lot of perswadin’, and he got it ; but when he 
couldn’t stand no more on it, lie let on that it was inside of 
a rotten wilier alongside a pond in the holier. I didn't 
know no pond, but I ketched sight of the Kid sneakin’ oft, 
end I jest sneaked after her, takin’ Israel along case he 
mighter made a mistake in his jography. There was no 
walking fast with Israel over the brambles, end I lost sight 
of the Kid ; but it stood to reason the holler was down hill, 
so down I went the way the Kid had gone, near as I could 
reckon, and there was the pond and the rotten wilier as he 
had prophesied, and there at the foot of the wilier was the 
empty case, but nairy diamond. I cocked my eye around, 
end once more I ketched sight of the Kid sneakin’ off. I 
went for her nat’ rally, but 1 might jest as well have went 
for a torn-tit. She got clean outer sight about the same 
time’s I got outer wind. But Israel wouldn’t give up, and 
we hunted about for the Kid till we couldn’t neither of us 
hunt any more ; then we sat down in committee, and,arter 
pretty warm discussion, we came to the unanimous conclu- 
sion that, for the sake of everyone concerned, we had bet- 
ter get rid of the leather case and say nothin’ about it. I 
laid it down that the Kid had not took the diamond for 
mere mischief. She knew, in her own greaser way, that 
the thing had a power in it to bring happiness to the owner 
— like a charm. She see that it clothed us decent end 
lodged us comfortable, and that while it separated you and 
her, it brought you and squire’s daughter together. And 
we laid it down mutual that the Kid had too much gum- 
tion to pitch the thing away, but would hide it somewhere 
where she could fetch it bimeby. Now, hef we’d done 
otherways what would have happened ? Van Iloeck ud 
have declared it was all a lie, and wild horses wouldn’ter 


% 

THE GREAT HESPER . 113 

dragged the secret outer the Kid. The only hope of get- 
tin’ back the Hesper was ter let her play her game and 
watch her close.” 

A copy of this statement I sent to Sir Edmund, and I 
added : 

“ Either V an Hoeck is possessed of supernatural clair- 
voyance, or he must have been in complicity with the 
man who took the diamond from me. 

“ Can that man have been the ‘ F urnival ’ who obtained 
the address of Brace and myself from you ? ” 

For my own part, 1 doubted Yan Hoeck’s innocence. 
Perhaps I may have been biased in forming an ill opinion 
of him by my jealous dislike of the relation he had 
formed with Edith. She was the only living creature 
Yan Hoeck had spoken well of in my hearing ; and I 
fancied that he was playing a hypocritical part to obtain 
the pleasure of her society and friendship. 

By the return mail Sir Edmund wrote : 

“ I felt it right to read that part of your letter referring 
to the robbery to Yan Hoeck, who for the last few weeks 
has been an accepted visitor here, and I may add the ob- 
ject of Edith’s sympathetic commiseration. He declared 
upon his oath that there had been no struggle between 
himself and Brace, and that no statement had been ex- 
torted from him by the violent means indicated ; that 
when you left he felt his way to the road, and waited 
there. Brace came and undertook to lead him home. 

He remembers stopping on the way while Brace asked 
him if he thought you had really been robbed of the dia- 
8 


114 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


mond. He knew nothing of the leather case, which 
Brace might well have concealed in the manner you de- 
scribe without his perception. After this explanation, he 
said that he must once more relinquish our friendship 
until all doubt is cleared up. ‘ But,’ he added emphati- 
cally, as he was about to leave us, ‘if only a part of this 
story is true — if the girl got possession of the diamond, 
hid it, and should restore it to Brace and Thorne, they 
will make away with it, and you will never see anyone 
of them again.’ ” 

“ If Van Hoeck is not the very old ’un liisself,” said 
the Judge, when I showed him this letter, “ he’s hand in 
hand with him.” 

We asked Lola if she had recognized the man who 
dropped from the oriel window. 

“Ho,” she replied, “the night was too thick; but he 
was about the size of the man I saw the night before go- 
ing from one window to the other in the left-hand side of 
the house.” 

One morning Brace said to me : 

“ I’ve had my suspicions on it for some time ; but now 
I’m sure on it. We* re being watched .” 

I asked him what reason he had for this belief. 

“ My reason is this,” he replied. “ The one-legged 
nigger as comes here for scraps give one of the house-helps 
harf-a-dollar this morning. It looked like he’d been buy- 
ing up your silver spoons, so I jest had the rascal searched ; 
but there warn’t nairy thing on him but varmin. Lay 
your life, sir, that nigger didn’t give harf-a-dollar for 
nothin’. We’ve got to keep our eyes open ! ” 

“ You think he is a spy, paying the helps for informa- 
tion with respect to our movements '( ” I said. 


THE GREAT HELPER. 


115 


w I do — jest that.” 

“ Why ? ” 

“ Why ? ” echoed Brace, drawing a long breath, “ be- 
cause it’s jest three weeks since Yan Hoeck learned that 
we are goin’ to get back the Great Hesper, and he found 
an excuse for quittin’ the locality of Monken Abbey.” 


CIIAPTEK XIX. 

As the spring advanced, Brace turned his eyes daily to 
the mountain tops. On the first of May he said he would 
have a day or two off, and “jest have a look round at 
things.” 

On the seventh he returned. 

“ The time’s come,” he said ; “ the snow’s goin’ away 
sharp, and the rocks is already squittering down, but 
glory be, the hole’s open. All we’re got to pray for now 
is that the Kid ’ll listen to the v’ice of reason. Leave her 
to me ! ” 

As we were sitting at table he said, in a casual way : 

“ I was up to my old lot in Petersville for a bit of a re- 
fresher during my little holiday, sir ; and you’re no idea 
how nice the old place do look. Xow, supposin’ — as we 
ain’t got nairy blessed thing to do for the next week, we 
kinder take a look around arter that stone we used ter 
think such a lot of — jest for curiosity like — hey ? The 
Kid used ter make a fine to-do about bein’ good when she 
was sick ; do you feel like it now, my gel ?” 

Lola turned deadly pale, and was silent for a moment, 
then lifting her eyes to mine, she stretched her hand out, 
and, as I took it, said : 

“ I am ready.” 


116 


THE GREAT HESTER 


We made our preparations that afternoon, and took the 
night train from San Diego to Canyon Diver, where we 
put up for the night. In the morning we took the stage 
to. Great Canyon City — a deserted mining town at the foot 
of the Sierra. After lunching at the only hotel, we tried 
mules, and, leaving the valley, ascended the mountain 
path. 

Water streamed freely down the mountain path upon 
the lower slopes ; but our difficulties only commenced 
when we reached the line where the half- melted snow 
made the rocks treacherous even to the feet of the sure 
mules. We had four hours of terribly rough and danger- 
ous travelling before we reached Petersville — the most 
wretched collection of rotten shanties I ever saw. 

Not a living creature was to be seen ; there was not a 
foot-mark in the slushy snow which still lay ankle deep 
upon the ground ; it seemed completely abandoned. But 
the Judge led the way through the deserted rows of 
tumble-down huts, and presently pointed to one from 
which a column of blue smoke was ascending through the 
clear air. 

We were on a plateau in the very heart of the moun- 
tains. All around the rugged peaks rose high into the 
still air, tinted with deep purple in the shadow, and the 
loveliest rose-pink where the sunlight fell upon the snow. 
Where the snow had slid away from the precipitous sides, 
the granite, streaming with water, glittered in the bright 
rays as if it were incrusted with jewels. 

As we came to a halt, waiting for a response to Brace’s 
call, the silence was broken by a prolonged roar like that 
of distant thunder, as some rock loosened by the frost 
broke away and hurtled down the unfathomed canyon. 

A man came from the building, which still bore faint 


THE GREAT I1ESPER. 


117 


trace of the word “ Hotel ” on its fagade, and, greeting 
Brace with the air of an old acquaintance, said he had got 
everything aired, and a supper all ready to put down to 
the tire. Brace had seen the necessity of preparing him 
for our reception. A couple of rooms had been made as 
decently comfortable as might be expected. We left Lola 
there, and strolled out while the dinner was preparing. 

The end of the town abutted upon a wide stream, that 
was tearing and whirling along among the gigantic bowl- 
ders that marked its course, toward a black cleft which 
divided a towering mountain in two. Fantastic as are the 
effects which characterize the heights of the Sierra, I had 
seen nothing comparable to this. It was as if some 
mighty hand had split the mountain in half. 

“ I have know’d the time,” said the Judge, impressively, 
“ when both sides of this river was lined with miners, aud 
every one on ’em worth his thousands of dollars ! ” 

I had no sympathies with the past glories of the stream. 
My mind was filled with admiration of the savage beauty 
of the scenery around. 

“ Thar,” said the Judge, flinging a piece of wood, part 
of an appliance which might have washed gold untold, 
into the turbid and rushing waters ; “ thar, bar stoppages, 
that’ll pass the Great Hesper in less time than it will take 
us to get back to the hotel.” 

“ Is it through that cleft we have to go ? ” 

“ All, sir, and down into the very innards of it.” 

I was looking toward the dark chasm with a feeling of 
awe, when Brace touched my elbow. He was dragging 
at his chin tuft, his lower lip protruding, his heavy brows 
bent. He pointed slowly to a trace in the snow. 

“ The man from the hotel been down here — is that what 
you mean ? ” I asked. 


118 


THE GREAT 1IESPER. 


“ It ain’t him, sir, that mark. Look at it — it’s a one- 
footed man ! end,” he added, striding forward and looking 
closer — “ end it’s a left-footed man ! end it’s a one wooden- 
legged man!” and then, with conviction, “It’s the durned 
nigger that’s been spyin’ after ns. Leave him to me. He 
ain’f; goin’ to spy us to-morrow, not lief I knows it.” 

I approached the marks, and perceived that beside the 
foot was the round hole made by a wooden stump. 

After dinner, Brace looked to the pine torches he had 
brought up, and spent the evening in drying them care- 
fully, while chatting with the man of the hotel. He said 
not a word about our discovery, nor did the man speak of 
any visitor being in the house. This, with a certain cun- 
ning look in his little red eyes, alarmed me. 

We were called at four o’clock the next morning, Brace 
saying that we must start early, in order to get our job 
done in time to get back to a comfortable dinner, but in 
reality, I believe, to preclude the possibility of being fol- 
lowed. When we had finished our breakfast, Brace, tak- 
ing the hotel- man by the button, said : 

“ Old pal, you hev got a stranger staying in this house, 
I reckon.” 

The man scratched his ear, looked up and looked down, 
and then, at a jerk of his button, blinked up at Brace, 
and said : 

“ Waal, I allow I hev.” 

“ A wooden -legged stranger, I think?” 

The same shuffling, and then : 

“ Waal, I allow he hev got a wooden leg.” 

“ A nigger, I believe.” 

“Waal, a nigger accordin’ to appearances.” 

“I kinder fancy he’s in the little chamber over there. 
’Twarn’t a swine I heard gruntin’, were it ? ” 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


119 


“ You kin inspect him, if you like.” 

“ I will ; after which hef I take a fancy to nailin’ of him 
up for four-and-twenty hours, for the same number o’ dol- 
lars you will allow me the use of a hammer and some 
three-inch pints \ ” 

“ I will do that,” said the man ; and the two having 
shaken hands on the bargain, he went off to get the ar- 
ticles. required, while Brace looked into the room. 

“ It’s the same,” said Brace, and turning up his sleeves, 
he proceeded to nail up the door in a business-like man- 
ner. 

“ I don’t think he will trouble us, unless he kin afford 
to make it worth the old pal’s while to let him out,” said 
Brace, as we started from the house, “ and even then he 
won’t get much of a chance, seein’ as no mortal man can 
get down that hole without a light, and we’ve got eyes for 
to see hef a light is follerin’ on us.” 

It was dark, despite the snow that lay upon the ground. 
Brace led the way with a pine torch, which burned slug- 
gishly in the mist that enveloped us. Lola holding my 
hand tightly, we followed close behind Brace, who kept 
the torch low to show the nature of the path, nevertheless 
we slipped and floundered considerably in stepping from 
bowlder to bowlder — the half-melted snow rendering it 
impossible to obtain a firm footing. 

Under other circumstances, Lola would have enjoyed 
the difficulties, and laughed at our mishaps, but now she 
neither smiled nor spoke; sometimes she would press my 
hand a little tighter — that was all the sign she gave. We 
followed the course of the river, guided by the sound of 
the rushing waters. As we proceeded, the descent grew 
more and more rapid, the stream forming a long succes- 
sion of falls, and, the light increasing, the rocks and bowl- 


120 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


ders about us became visible through the gray mist. At 
length our progress was stopped by a huge rock that rose 
perpendicular before us. 

“Hark !” said the Judge, as we stopped to regain the 
breath that had been pumped out of our lungs by the last 
scramble. 

I listened — we seemed to have turned our backs on the 
stream — its rushing sounded more distant than I had yet 
heard it. I said this. 

“ Ilark again ! ” said Brace. Then as I leaned my ear 
attentively, I heard beside the swirling and dashing noise 
in our rear a muffled roar, that seemed to come from the 
very bowels of the earth. I almost fancied I felt the rock 
vibrating under my feet. 

“ You’re right,” said Brace, when I gave him my im- 
pression ; “ end the roar you hear is that stream shootin’ 
down thousands of feet to the bottom of the great hole. 
If it warn’t for the durned mist,” he added, holding up 
the torch, which revealed but a few feet above our heads 
of the granite wall by our side, “you’d see that we’re now 
standin’ right between the two sides of the divide we 
looked at last night. We air standin’ right over the canyon, 
with per’aps four or five thousand feet of nothing under 
us, on a lump of rock that’s tumbled down from up above, 
and wedged itself here, ’cause somethin’ stopped its goin’ 
furder, end it do tremble, I allow. It ain’t solid ! It’s 
moved a lump since I knew it in the old days, and one o’ 
these days a chunk from up above will come down and 
start it off for good an’ all.” 

“I think we may as well get off it, in that case.” 

“Wal, yes. It ain’t more risky standin’ on it than 
standin’ under it ; but as we’ve got to go under it, and 
down the hole, we may as well git.” 


THE GREAT 1IESPER. 


121 


He led the way along the trembling rock a dozen yards 
may be — the rushing water sounding upon the left of us,” 
and then stretched out his left arm to stop us. He ad- 
vanced cautiously, and holding out the torch at arm’s 
length, the light fell upon the yellow water as it poured 
down into the black gulf upon which our standing place 
abutted. The flame of the torch was drawn down by the 
current of air as if it had been at the blast-hole of a fur- 
nace. Raising his voice to overcome the noise of the 
water, Brace called out: 

“ We’ve got to go down there l ” 

“ You are not afraid, Lola? ” I asked. 

She shook her head, and gave my hand another little 
squeeze. 

Brace led us off the rock, keeping the water still on our 
left, and there was some more downward clambering for a 
few minutes. Then we came to a stand, and he showed 
me a lateral opening about four feet in height. 

u We goes through there,” he said, then he produced a 
flask, poured out a dram, and handed it to me. I offered 
it to Lola. Another shake of the head, and another little 
squeeze. 

I emptied the cup, and Brace helped himself. 

“ There ain’t no need to get ourselves in a muck over 
this job. We’ll put our rubbers on,” he said, “ the wet 
drips through.” 

I took out the overcoats from the bundle of rugs, and 
we put them on. Then I strapped the roll of rugs on my 
shoulders again. 

Brace touched my shoulder and pointed upward to a 
couple of faintly pink nebulous patches in the mist. 

“ What is it ? ” I asked. 

“ The sun ketcliin’ the tops of the peaks,” he replied. 


122 


THE GREAT HESPER . 


He took a couple of torches from the bundle he carried, 
and began to light them at the end of the one he had last 
used. 

“ Won’t you wait a little— it will be light in half an 
hour 2 ” I said. 

“ Not down there,” he replied ; “ it’s pitch dark at noon 
in that almighty hole. Now,” he added, when the torches 
were well lit, “take one of these, kick the snow well off 
your feet, keep one eye on me, t’other on the rocks, and 
trust the rest to Providence.” 

With this last injunction ho stooped down, and passed 
through the opening. We followed, but singly, for we 
needed both hands to make the perilous descent. 

The first thing I noticed in passing under the great 
block that bridged the awful chasm was the comparative 
silence. We could no longer hear the rushing of the 
stream on the other side, only the dull roar of the water as 
it struck the bottom of the canyon some thousands of feet 
below. 

Brace’s voice was startlingly distinct when he spoke. 

“ You tell me the thing is on the other side of the ropes, 
my gel,” he said. 

She answered yes, and we went slowly forward and 
downward along the narrow and jagged ledge, our faces 
toward the glittering quartz, seeking interstices and pro- 
jections for hold to our hands. 

We were getting away from the fall, but at a certain 
point the natural path returned toward it in a zig-zagalong 
a lower projection. At the angle which offered a little 
wider standing space, we stopped. 

“This here hole was fust showed me by the Kid’s 
mother,” said Brace; “it had served her father for a 
cachette in quite the early days of this country’s glory. 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


123 


“ A cachette,” he explained, “ is a place where you 
keep things snug. A’most every miner, before the Yigi- 
lance Committee nomenated me judge, had a cachette. 
This was mine, and many a ounce I’ve brought down here ; 
fur you see, barrin’ accidents, it’s won’erful safe. You 
will allow that no one could find his way down here in the 
dark ” (I shuddered at the thought of anyone attempting 
such a fearful venture), “ and from here right up to the 
hole is a fair straight line, so that no light could come 
down without its bein’ seen ; but that ain’t the only safe- 
guard, as you shall see. Come on, sir.” 

We made our way foot by foot along the narrow ledge 
for some distance, still descending. When Brace again 
halted, the light of his torch revealed the yellow stream 
falling silently through space, a few feet before him. 
That silent fall impressed me with a sense of the awful 
depth of the gulf beside us. 

The ledge ended abruptly where Brace stood ; a recess 
in the wall allowed ample standing room for us three. 

“ The greaser never got no furder down than this ; but 
it weren’t fur enough for me,” said Brace. “ I had my 
idea of gettin’ right down to the bottom of this hole, where 
these waters must have carried tons o’ gold.” 

“ But the ledge ends here.” 

u It do ; but,” he added, lifting his torch, “ it goes on 
again over there.” 

The light fell on a jutting projection of quartz upon the 
opposite side of the chasm, distant at least twenty feet. 

“ But you cannot leap that.” 

“ Correct, end I ain’t goin’ to try.” 

He laid himself upon his face, and stretched his arm 
down the chasm ; when he arose, he had a cord in his 
hand. Fulling this in, he drew up two coils of stout 


124 


THE GREAT BEEPER 


rope. As lie drew them in, 1 saw that their other ends 
were attached to rocks upon the opposite ledge, one above 
the other, with about four feet between. 

“We must hitch ’em tight — give us a hand, sir,” he 
said. 

1 helped him to make the ropes taut, and fasten their 
loose ends upon the projecting crags that he had long em- 
ployed for that purpose. 

“ There, sir,” he said, taking his torch from Lola, and 
holding it over the black gulf, “ there’s as pretty a bridge 
and hand-rail as the heart of man could reasonably de- 
sire.” 

For all that, I held my breath as I saw him step out on 
the lower rope, and make his way, holding by the upper 
one, across that black abyss. My turn came, and with the 
blood humming in my ears, I stepped out upon the rope. 
It swung to and fro in the middle, and I was seized with 
that irresistible suggestion of self-destruction which affects 
the imagination of most people in looking down from an 
extraordinary height. 

Lola began to cross before I was well off, and when we 
stood all three in safety on the ledge, a fervent “ Thank 
God ! ” rose from my heart. 

“ Wal, we’ve got to git back ag’in,” observed Brace, as 
if my thankfulness were a little premature ; “ howsever, 
’tain’t bad to think of Providence when you’re in danger; 
now, my gel, it’s for you to lead on.” 

“ You can stay here ; you’re too heavy for where I’m 
going,” said she, taking the torch from his hand. 

With a swiftness that terrified me, she went down the 
side of the precipice, finding foothold where we, looking 
down from the projection, could see none. 

“ They don’t know danger — kids don’t,” said Brace, in 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


125 


a low tone. “ End,” lie added, looking into the depths 
about him uneasily, “ I wouldn’t mind feeling the same 
myself. First time I ever felt skeery down this hole, and 
I’m durned if it shan’t be the last. I’m gettin’ too old 
to enj’y risky work.” 

I could not take my eyes from the light below, as it 
passed in jerks from point to point. At last it stopped, 
and after a minute’s pause, to my great relief, it began to 
return. 

Quicker and quicker the light danced along until I felt 
sick and giddy with fear for the girl’s safety ; and then, 
with one last bound, she stood upon our shelf of rock, 
holding the Great Hesper in her hand. 

“ Am I good ? ” she asked, earnestly, nestling up to my 
side. 


CHAPTER XX. 

“ It’s the very same,” said Brace, taking the stone in 
his hand. 

“ Do you take care of it,” said I, “ for I find enough to 
do to take care of myself.” 

u Wal, I reckon it won’t be long afore we’re on the best 
side o’ this hole,” he replied, putting the stone in his 
pocket. 

He was certainly ill at ease and less confident than 
usual, for he took his torch and examined the fastenings of 
the ropes, and then from an adjacent cavity he brought 
out another coil of cord, in which cross-pieces of stout 
hickory were knotted at intervals of a foot. He unfastened 
it and laid it loose upon the rock, with the looped end free. 

“ The ropes has been years exposed to the damp, and 
they’re bound to go one day. lief they should happen to 


126 


THE GREAT HESPER. 


go this day, this here knotted rope may come in partic’lar 
handy. You know how to use it, my gel. Here’s for a 
start.” 

With the torch in his hand he began the return along 
the rope. 

He had got to the middle when he stopped. 

“What’s that?” he asked sharply, holding the upper 
rope with one hand, while he raised the torch' with the 
other, and peered out into the darkness. 

It was fearful to see him standing there with the up- 
held torch over the awful chasm, the one luminous object 
in the blackness. 

u Did you hear anything, pardner ? ” 

“No.” 

“ Seemed to me 1 heered a rifle cocked. Durned old 
fool ! ” he muttered in self-reproach, as he continued his 
course. 

Without accident, or other incident, he reached the 
ledge, and with a grunt of content seated himself on a 
bowlder, letting the torch drop by his side. There was a 
pool of water there ; with a hiss the light went out. 

The next instant there was a flash in the darkness be- 
yond, followed by the sharp crack of a rifle shot. 

We could see nothing, but from the ledge opposite 
came a groan, and Brace called faintly : 

“ I’m hit, pardner ; look out for yourself.” 

The shot had been fired after the light was extin- 
guished, leaving him in obscurity. The faculty that had 
enabled the assassin to descend that terrible ledge in the 
dark had enabled him to mark down poor Brace, when he 
was no longer visible to our eyes. 

This reflection struck me as, torch in hand, I sprung 
upon the rope bridge to cross to my fallen partner. 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


127 


“ Back, pardner, back,” groaned Brace ; “ lie’s got the 
Ilesper, and he’ll have your life — back ! ” 

I raised my torch, and looking toward the ledge, I saw 
a man kneeling over Brace. 

He raised his arm to silence Brace, and the light fell 
on the bright blade of the knife in his hand. I shouted. 
Turning, he saw me midway across the chasm, and sprung 
to his feet. Then I recognized him. It was Yan Iloeck. 

It was he, but could I believe my senses? His eyes 
were not the same. At that distance his sightless eyes 
should have been hardly distinguishable from his cadaver- 
ous face, but now they shone out black and lustrous. 
Yet in that instant, as he looked toward me, they seemed 
to fade awa} r in the light of my torch. And this was no 
deception of my sight. 

With a savage cry of rage he held up his arms to 
shield his eyes from the light, and, grasping his knife, he 
made his way quickly toward the rock to which the rope 
on which I stood was attached. 

In a moment the whole mystery was revealed. He was 
a HyctalojpSj and his eyes, blind in the light, were gifted 
with the extraordinary power of seeing in the dark — a 
power by which was explained all that had hitherto been 
inscrutable in the robbery of the Great Ilesper and the at- 
tendant events at Monken Abbey. 

With a perception that he intended to cut the rope which 
sustained me, I hastened to reach the ledge on which he 
stood. But my progress was necessarily slow, for the lower 
cord, stretched with the weight upon it, formed a deep 
bend, and my damp boots slipped upon its wet surface. 

Which would he cut first ? If it were the upper one, I 
must trust to catching the lower as I fell. With this view, 


128 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


I kept myself as perpendicular as circumstances permit- 
ted ; at the same time grasping the upper one with all my 
force, in case he cut the lower one. 

I was within a yard of the rock when I felt the rope 
under my foot jerk as Van Hoeck cut through the first 
strands ; the next instant it went altogether, and I was left 
swinging by my hands to the upper rope over the chasm. 

“ Die ! cursed dog, die ! v shouted Van Hoeck, with the 
frantic excitement of a man achieving at last the object 
of his life, as he attacked the upper rope with his knife. 
' £ Die, and know that all you cherish in the world shall be 
mine — wealth, and the woman you love. Die ! ” 

And with that he severed the last strand, and I swept 
down through space. Clinging with desperate energy to 
the rope in my hands, I swung, cramping myself together 
in anticipation of a violent shock against the side of the 
precipice. Happily, the rock above projected a little, so 
that the blow was less severe than I expected. I re- 
bounded, and swung to and fro like a pendulum in the 
pitchy darkness. For, in order to get a firmer grasp upon 
the rope when 1 saw his intention of cutting it, I had 
dropped the torch, which fell like the spark of a rocket 
into the depths below. 

What was I to do ? I dared not try to pull myself 
hand over hand up the wet rope, for the slightest relaxa- 
tion of my hold might allow the rope to slip, and I should 
be lost assuredly. 

“ Dear, are you there still ? ” Lola called from above. 

“ Yes,” I replied. 

“Here is the rope — when I call, you can trust yourself 
to it.” 

At the same time I felt the knotted rope dangling 
against my shoulders. 


TEE GREAT UESPER. 


129 


“ Now,” she called. 

It was not an instant too soon. I felt the wet rope slip- 
ping through my hands. Leaving go with one hand, I 
clutched out wildly for the knotted rope, and by the hap- 
piest chance succeeded in seizing it. 

I got a cross-piece between my feet, and I was compar- 
atively safe, if Lola had strength to hold on for a few mo- 
ments. . But that I might not tax her too greatly, I still 
grasped the wet rope. 

“ Saved,” I called out to her. 

“Not for long,” shouted Van Hoeck, from the opposite 
side, and I heard the snap of the spring as lie closed the 
breech-loader, and then the “ click” as he cocked the piece. 

Would he shoot me or the girl ? I asked myself in that 
moment. 

He fired, and the ringing shot was followed by a sharp 
cry of pain from above, and the cross-piece on whicli I 
stood gave a little jerk, but no more. She must have es- 
caped, despite that cry, or she could not still have held on 
to the rope. 

But terrible as these thoughts that passed through my 
mind in those brief moments were, they were banished 
from my mind by a yet more terrific appeal to my senses. 

Following almost immediately upon the crack of the 
rifle and Lola’s cry, a mass of rock, probably disintegrated 
by the frost, and started from its place by the reverbera- 
tion of the shot, slid down the face of the precipice, 
hurtled against a rock, and some moments after fell with 
a deep “pong” into the water below. 

But as if this had been the key-stone of the fabric that 
upheld the mighty weight of the enormous rock that cov- 
ered the chasm, its fall was followed by the crumbling 
away and precipitation of others at intervals rapidly de- 
9 


130 


TITE GREAT I1ESPER. 


creasing, their fall eventually becoming a continued 
down-pour, marked now and then by a louder crash as 
some larger block gave way. 

The roar of artillery, the peal of thunder, was not to be 
compared with the awful din as the great rock jerked 
downward, as the quartz splintered and gave way under 
it, shattering and grinding the opposing rocks, and burst- 
ing away huge fragments that struck from side to side as 
they hurtled down, tearing and splitting the very heart of 
the mountain as it seemed. 

The fall was most violent at some distance away from 
us further down the ravine ; only an occasional block, 
ground under the great mass as it jerked down, was shat- 
tered to pieces, and fell in dust and rubble about us. 

But our turn was at hand. 

It seemed to me as if the last day had come, and the 
world were crumbling to pieces. To the terror of an 
earthquake was added the horror of impenetrable dark- 
ness, and the consciousness that the gigantic rock that 
vaulted the abyss was slowly jerking down upon us. I 
must have kept my hold upon the rock by instinct; I had 
no consciousness of volition. 

The awful eruption had continued for some moments — 
scarcely so long as one might take to read this description 
— with increasing intensity, when suddenly, with an ap- 
palling crash, the great roof tilted up. I saw the earth 
slowly gape open above me, letting in the blinding sun- 
light; and then the upper lip of jagged rock reaching its 
highest elevation shot sidelong away, making visible the 
long strip of blue heaven between the towering peaks of 
the mountain. 

One last “ pong,” as the rock wedged itself afresh lower 
down the precipice, and then all was still. The sight of 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


131 


the blue sky, the sense of relief, were too much for me. 
I trembled violently, and for a moment I thought I must 
relinquish my hold. But a piteous cry from Lola nerved 
me to fresh effort. 

I saw now the two cut ropes, and, grasping one in each 
hand, I drew myself up, using the knotted rope as slightly 
as I could ; and so presently I scrambled upon the ledge. 

Lola was lying upon the ground drawn against the rock 
round which she had passed the knotted cord. The ball 
had struck her and she had fallen, but the devoted girl 
had passed the noose round her body, and so saved my life 
for the second time. I knelt beside her, and raised her 
head. She opened her beautiful eyes and smiled, as she 
took my hand. She could do no more. 


CLIAPTEB XXI. 

“ I knowed it must go one day. How fares it, pard- 
ner ? ” called Brace from the opposite ledge. 

Looking across, I saw him sitting on the bowlder bind- 
ing his arm with his neckcloth. 

“ Lola is hit. The villain has done his work,” I said. 

“ He’ll never do no more,” Brace answered, pointing up 
the ledge. 

Van Iloeck had tried, to escape the way he came, after 
shooting Lola, and had got some distance along the ledge 
when the great rock opened and slid away. 

He stood on the narrow path now — a ghastly spectacle. 
A piece of quartz had struck him on the head ; a thin 
stream of blood was trickling down his cheek. In one 
hand he held the Great Ilesper ; in the other he grasped 
his rifle. 


132 


THE GREAT REEFER. 


But lie dared not move from the position lie had 
reached when the roof tilted up ; for the light that burst 
in had blinded him once more. The sensitive retina had 
closed over the pupils, and the blank, sightless eyes stared 
wildly round, incapable of seeing. t 

It was possible for Brace to reach him by going along 
the ledge. 

“ Will you save him ? 55 I asked. 

“ Hot I, pardner,” he replied. “ I leave him to Provi- 
'dence, be his end what it may. The shot he fired at my 
poor youngster started the consarn, and brought the whole 
thing down. ’Tis God Almighty’s judgment. Let it be.” 

Yan Hoeck let the rifle slip from his hand ; how insig- 
nificant to us seemed the sound that came up from below, 
as the weapon struck a rock, after the mighty discord that 
had thundered in our ears, and yet to him how terribly 
significant ! 

We could see his hand quivering as he groped along 
the edge of the wall. 

In vain now he strained his eyes to see the ledge by 
which he had followed us. Yet he could not stand for- 
ever there. 

lie found a crevice for his fingers, and made a step for- 
ward ; he advanced again, but the rock he put his foot on 
was a piece of the debris that had fallen upon the ledge. 
It rolled under his weight. lie staggered back, swinging 
his arms in the vain attempt to get an equilibrium, then 
he shot forward, and fell headlong down, down, down into 
the abyss. 

I held my breath ; it seemed minutes before that hollow 
“ pong ” reached our ears, telling us that Yan Hoeck was 
gone forever, and the Great Ilesper with him. 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


133 


There was cord, and to spare, in the coils. Weighting 
one end with a stone, I threw an end across to Brace, and 
when the cut ropes were knotted, and a bridge once more 
formed, he crossed, and knelt down by me over poor Lola. 

He examined her wound, and shook his head in silence : 
there was no hope. s 

We made a mattress of the rugs on the smoothest part 
of the rock and attempted to lift her upon it. But the 
movement gave her pain, and she motioned us to desist. 
Then pointing upward, she made signs for us to leave her. 

“ Hot while you are with us, my poor gel,” said her fa- 
ther, with more tenderness than I had ever heard in his 
voice. 

We had the flask, and some food in a wallet. We eat 
when we were hungry, seated beside Lola. 

Then exhausted with fatigue, and the terrible strain w T e 
had been subjected to, we unconsciously fell asleep, with 
our backs resting against the rock. The last tiling of 
which I was conscious was the pressing of Lola’s lips upon 
my hand. 

Brace touched my arm. 

u Pardner,” he said, in a tone of awe, “ The Kid’s 
gone.” 

I looked where I had seen her lying with her face to my 
hand. She was gone literally. There was a little stain of 
blood upon the rock — a drop further on, another close to 
the edge of the platform. She had kept her promise — she 
had been good ; and now the sufferings of her short life 
were ended. 

“ She knowed it was no good our waitin’ — poor little 
cuss.” 

I felt something in my hand ; opening it, I found a ring 


134 


THE GREAT IIESPER. 


I had bought for Lola. She had slipped it there before 
she went. 

Sir Edmund and Edith came to San Diego in June, the 
loveliest season of that lovely land. The air from the sea 
tempered the sun’s heat. The plantations were already 
burdened with fruit, everywhere there was a redolence of 
orange-blossom — “a very suggestive fragrance, my dear 
fellow,” said the baronet, pressing my hand. 

Edith was charmed with all she saw. 

“ Is this my home ? ” she asked. 

I turned to Sir Edmund. 

“ Well, we must go through the formality of looking at 
the books, my deal*,” said he. 

I had no hesitation in showing them, and when he had 
seen the splendid results they already showed, he formally 
sanctioned a renewal of our engagement ; but we had not 
waited for that consent to let our hearts join in uncon- 
strained delight. 

Our second engagement was happily longer than the first, 
but we were married the week after the vines were cleared. 

Brace was at our wedding breakfast. When it was 
over, he took some of the flowers from the table, and dis- 
appeared for some days. I knew how he had spent the 
brief holiday. If I had entertained any doubt, it would 
have been dispelled when, on his return, he took the old 
agreement from his pocket and/ pointed to the postscript : 

“It is understood between the above partners that, in 
the event of a lucky find, the Kid shall not be forgotten.” 

And, indeed, in my wife I had found a dearer prize than 
any I had dreamed of when I signed the compact. 


THE END. 


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fair and advantageous to you. 

Orders for goods are received from and goods sent to all parts of 
the United States, with Free Transportation when ten 
or more members combine or club their orders, the freight charges 
being paid by the Manufacturers at the Central Office. 

Apply at once, and make all remittances for either merchandise or 
membership fees payable to 

A. J. BISHOP, Conductor, 

People’s Co-operative Supply Association, 

68 Wall St., and 14 & 16 Vesey St., NEW YORK CITY. 



“PAPA’S OWN GIRL.” 

By Marie Howland. 


The manuscript of this great American Novel was 
submitted by the author to one of the ablest of our edi- 
torial critics, who, after a careful perusal, returned it with 
the following analysis of its rare excellence : 

“ As 1 think of them , the men , women and children of your story 
seem like actually living beings , whom I have met and lived with , or 
perhaps may meet to-morrow. 

“ The last half of your novel is grander than anything GEORGE 
ELIOT ever wrote. I am not, in saying this , disparaging the first 
half of the story , but this last part is a new gospel. TEE COUNT 
is a creation suggested by the best qualities of the best men you have 
known. THE SOCIAL PALACE, as you have painted it, is the 
heaven of humanity; and the best of it is, that it is a heaven capable of 
realization. ******* pj ie scene 0 f 
DAN'S return, and of his meeting with MIN , is indescribably pathetic. > 
no one could read it with dry eyes, and the moral element involved is 
more effective than in any dramatic situation in literature. With the 
trite fidelity of the artist you have given perfect attention to your minor 
characters, ‘ TOO SOON ’ for example; and I admire the tact with 
which you bring over Mrs. FOREST into sympathy with the SOCIAL 
PALACE and WOMAN'S RIGHTS. This is true ART Your 
novel throughout meets all the great questions of the day, even the finan- 
cial one, and it is the best translation of GODIN that could be given. 
You will find a PUBLISHER, be sure of that, and THE NOVEL 
WILL BE THE GREATEST LITERARY SENSATION OF 
THE TIMET 

This powerfully written and artistic Novel is to the social 
questions now convulsing the civilized world what “Uncle 
Tom’s Cabin ” was to the slavery agitation. 


One volume, 1 2mo, Lovell’s Library, No. 534, 
30 cents ; Cloth, 45 cents. 


1 JOHN W. LOVELL CO., Publishers, 

14 and 10 Vesey St., New York. 



RECENTLY PUBLISHED. 


1 vol 12 mo, illustrated, cloth gilt, $1,50, 


SOCIAL SOLUTIONS 

(, Solutions So dales). 

By M. G-ODIISr, 

Founder of the Familistire at Guise ; Prominent Leader of Industries in 
France and Belgium ; Member of the National Assembly. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 

MARIE HOWLAND. 


An admirable English translation of M. Godin’s state- 
ment of the course of study which led him to conceive the 
Social Palace at Guise, France. There is no question that 
this pubhcation will mark an era in the growth of the 
labor question. It should serve as the manual for organ- 
ized labor in its present contest, since its teachings will as 
surely lead to the destruction of the wages system as the 
abohtion movement lead to that of chattel slavery. 


JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 

PUBLISHERS, 


11 and 16 Vesey Street, 


NEW YORK. 


By thine own soul’s law, learn to live ; 

And if men thwart thee, take no heed. 

And if men hate thee, have no cares- 
sing thou thy song, and do thy deed ; 

Hope thou thy hope, and pray thy prayer. 

And claim no crown they will not give. 

John G. Whittier. 

-♦ 

PUBLISHED. 

CO-OPERATION 

By ALBERT K. OWEN. 

A book (200 pages, 12mo) containing three plans illustrating sections and 
buildings suggested for “Pacific Colony Site,” and two maps showing 
Topolobampo Bay, Sinaloa, Mexico, including “Mochis Ranch,” the valley ol 
tho Rio Fuerte and its vicinage. 

Price, 30 cents. Sent, postage free, by John W. Lovell Co., Nos. 
la and 16 Yesey Street, New York City. 


Also, a Weekly Paper 



Edited by MARIE and EDWARD HOWLAND, 

Hammonton, New Jersey. 

Annual Subscription , $1 • six months , 50c. j three months , 25c. 

This paper (16-page pamphlet) Is devoted exclusively to the propaganda 
for the practical application o f . intcgral-co-operation. 

While being an uncompromising exponent o f Socialism, the Credit 
Foncier urges constructive measures and counsels against destructive 
methods. Its Colonists are to be known as “ conslrucovmists ” and “ individ- 
ualists ” in contradestincticn to a branch of socialists who favor destruction 
and communism. 

The Crelit Foncier presents a matured plan, with details, for farm, 
city, factory, and clearing house ; and invites the farmer, manufacturer, 
artizan, engineer, architect, contractor, and accountant to unite and organize 
to build for themselves homes, in keeping with solidity, art, and sanitation. 

It asks for evolution and not for revolution ; for inter-dependence and not 
for independence : for co-operation and not for competition ; for equity and 
not for equality ; for duty and not for liberty ; for employment *»nd not for 
charity ; for eclecticism and not for dogma ; for one law and net for class 
legislation ; for corporate management aud not for political control , for State 
responsibility for every person, at all times and in every place, and not for 
municipal irresponsibility for any person, at any time or in any place ; and 
it demands that the common interests of the citizen— the atmosphere land, 
water, light, power, exchange, transportation, construction, sanitation, °du- 
cation, entertainment, insurance, production, distribution, etc., etc.-' Se 
pooled,” and that the private life of the citizen be held sacred. 


JUST 

INTEGRAL 


t. 



Opinions of Eminent Men about 


“MOONSHINE” 

By FREDERIC ALLISON TUPPER. 


1 vol., 12mo, liOvell’s Library, No. 895. 20 Cents. 


1 JOHN G. WHITTIER says : 

“I have read thy story of ‘Moonshine’ with a great deal of interest. / 
should judge from the book, tluit it was written by an eye-witness of the 
scenes it so graphically describes 

GEN. BENJAMIN F. BUTLER says : 

“ It takes its place with ‘ Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ Post’s story ‘ From Ocean to 
Ocean,’ and Tourgce’s ‘ Fool’s Errand,’ in teaching the people the acts, doings, 
and feelings of each section. Accept my thanks for the book as a contribu- 
tion to the truth of history." 

SENATOR JOHN SHERMAN says : 

“ I have read the book with interest and pleasure." 

SENATOR JOHN A. LOGAN says: 

“It seems to be a well-written book so far as I have had an opportunity 
of examining it.” 

SENATOR GEO. B. EDMUNDS says : 

“ Scattered paragraphs that I have read interest me very much." 

EX-SECRETARY GEO. S. BOUTWELL says : 

“ I have read your novel entitled * Moonshine,’ with great interest. Your 
picture of Southern outrages is a truthful representation as far as it relates 
to the illicit distillation and sale of whiskey.” 


PRESS NOTICES. 

“ ‘Moonshine’ is a story, not of the moonshine of love or of nonsense, but 
of the tragic moonshine of the ‘ moonshiners.’ It is vividly told and well 
written. The hero is not the typical Northerner who used to go South and re- 
turn a more than typical Southerner ; but a Northerner rather inclined to 
Democratic and Southern ideals, who goes South and returns with no dis- 
position ever to stray again from his native heath.”— The Critic. 

“The story is well written and has power in causing impressions of its 
t' fidelity and in carrying convictions of its truth. It is a story that will enter- 
tain many readers."— Boston Globe. 

“ Incidentally It affords a view of political subversion in Alabama. If the 
ballot-box throughout the country were juggled with and polluted as it is in 
South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the Republic 
of the United States would be at an end. It is plain that the author writes 
as an eye witness."— Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. 

“A sprightly story, graphic in description, and full of exciting incidents .” 
—Chicago Inter-Ocean. 

“ The style is easy and graceful." — Chicago Times. 

“ Told with much vigor and shows no little dramatic powei'."— Zion's 
Herald. 

“ Full of life and incident."— Harvard Crimson. 

“Mr. Tupper is a terse writer, clear in portrayal, elevated in sentiment, 
and graphic in description.”— Newton (Mass.) Transcript. 


JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, Publishers, 

1 4 and 16 Vesey St., New York. 

h 


J 


SOCIALISM IN ACTION 


It ia the distinguishing feature of the Labor Movement that it 
strives after the attainment of a social state for every human 
being, such as shall be the healthy stimulation of all his good 
qualities, while his bad tendencies shall wither and drop away 
from him by the impossibility of their sustenance. 

To get at this conception of the possible life of man, has re- 
quired the experience of every day and every year, since the race 
arrived at the ability to keep a record of its progress. 

The process of the seasons, the growth and ripening of the crops 
has been the lesson nature has afforded for the study of her 
methods, and this ceaseless repetition has finally awakened man to 
the conception that his own life allies him to the same law of 
development. 

This is the measure of the socialist movement of the present, and 
for those who desire to take part in its furtherance we would com- 
mend the study of SOCIAL SOLUTIONS. * 

The main purpose of this publication was to issue the transla- 
tion by Marie Howland of the first public statement by M. Godin, 
of the study and experience he has illustrated in the construction 
and organization of the FAMILISTERE. 

Though the translation of this most important demonstration of 
the new life for labor was announced when it was prepared, by one 
of the chief publishers of this country, yet being abandoned on the 
ground “the labor question was too exciting,” it remained in 
manuscript until, in the course of events, a more progressive pub- 
lisher was found. In it3 preparation the plan adopted was that 
of twelve parts, each of which should contain such illustrative 
material as the editor should either find or prepare. The twelve 
parts are now published and for sale. While the complete trans- 
lation of M. Godin’s work is contained in eleven of the parts, the 
twelfth part is an admirable and complete exposition of the series 
of social solutions proposed by the Credit Foncier of Sinaloa, for 
the organization of the society on Topolobampo Bay, in Sinaloa, 
Mexico, which has been gathered by the Credit Foncier of Sinaloa , 
a paper published at Hammonton, New Jersey, at $1.00 a year. 

* Social Solutions, published in 12 parts in Lovell’s Library, price 10 cents 
each, or the 12 parts for $1.00. 

JOHN W. LOVELL CO., 

14: and t(i Vesey St,, New York . 




DR. 



COTT’S 

ts and Belts. 


Corsets, $1.00, $1.50, $2.00, $3.00. Belts, $3.00. Nursing Corset. 
Price, $1.50. Abdominal Corset, Price, $3.00. 

seventeen thousand families in the City of New York alone are now wearing 
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The prices are as 
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risk. In ordering kindly mention 
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size of corset usually worn. Make 
all remittances payable to GEO. 
>0- A. SCOTT, 542 BROADWAY, 
New York. 

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S coat-of-arms, and the 
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VVV MAFF EFECT- 
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Fa lies’ Belts, $3 each ; 

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Fancy Goods Dealer. 


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Mrs. F. C. Spencer. 


I 


Dr. Scott's Electric Hair Brushes, $1.00, $1.50, $2.00, $2.50, $3.00; ^Icsh 
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The treatment of many thousands of 
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44 Favorite Prescription,” whet* 

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eases. Their combined use also removes 
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Treating tiie Wrong Disease.— 
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44 Favorite Prescription” is the 
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SST* Send ten cents in stamps for Dr. 
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pages) on Diseases of Women. Address, 
World’s Dispensary Medical Association, 
No, €68 Main street, buffalo , n, T, 


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